Soil pH in Eau Claire, WI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Eau Claire, WI

Typical topsoil in Eau Claire, WI is pH 5.66, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 2.4 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Eau Claire needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: blueberries (off by 0.2), blue hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 2.4 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 2.4 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 2.4 lb/100 sq ft; roses 2.4 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.66, spread about 24 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 399,620 surveyed acres in Eau Claire, WI, 63% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 24% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 13% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.7 to 7.3, a spread of 3.6 units across 767 soil components. 63% 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 9.7% clay and 2.52% organic matter, which this site treats as sandy. Moving it one pH unit takes about 3 lb of lime or 1.2 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Eau Claire against the rest of Wisconsin

pH 5.66 is 0.42 below the Wisconsin median of 6.08. 18 of 72 Wisconsin counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Forest (5.6), Sawyer (5.62), Price (5.64), Polk (5.65), Langlade (5.66), Taylor (5.66), Florence (5.68), Rusk (5.68).

The range in Wisconsin runs from Iron at 5.16 to Washington at 6.88; Eau Claire sits 29% of the way up.