Soil pH in Dodge, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Dodge, NE

Typical topsoil in Dodge, NE is pH 6.86, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Dodge needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: potatoes 4.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 3.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 6.5 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 5.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 5.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 2 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.86, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 337,713 surveyed acres in Dodge, NE, 69% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 19% are alkaline (above 7.3), 12% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.6 to 8.5, a spread of 2.9 units across 225 soil components. 69% of the land falls in one class, so the county figure is a fair first guess for most yards here.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 29.5% clay and 3.02% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 28% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Dodge against the rest of Nebraska

pH 6.86 is 0.11 above the Nebraska median of 6.75. 56 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Buffalo (6.84), Custer (6.84), Greeley (6.84), Garden (6.85), Nance (6.86), Harlan (6.87), Wayne (6.87), Furnas (6.88).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Dodge sits 58% of the way up.