Soil pH in Elk, KS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Elk, KS

Typical topsoil in Elk, KS is pH 6.39, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Elk needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 3.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 4.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.39, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 406,819 surveyed acres in Elk, KS, 69% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 23% are alkaline (above 7.3), 8% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.4 to 7.9, a spread of 2.5 units across 216 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 28.7% clay and 2.72% 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. 23% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Elk against the rest of Kansas

pH 6.39 is 0.18 below the Kansas median of 6.57. 39 of 105 Kansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Saline (6.33), Edwards (6.35), Pratt (6.38), Doniphan (6.39), Ellsworth (6.41), Kingman (6.41), Butler (6.43), Morris (6.43).

The range in Kansas runs from Cherokee at 5.95 to Wallace at 7.51; Elk sits 28% of the way up.