Soil pH in Erie, NY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Erie, NY

Typical topsoil in Erie, NY is pH 6.02, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Erie needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2), potatoes (off by 0), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 3.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.02, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 494,454 surveyed acres in Erie, NY, 44% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 32% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 24% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 7.3, a spread of 2.7 units across 328 soil components. No single class covers 60% of the county, so two gardens a few miles apart here can need opposite treatments. Test your own bed.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 18.4% clay and 5.1% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 5.1% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the clay bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Erie against the rest of New York

pH 6.02 is 0.25 above the New York median of 5.77. 42 of 62 New York counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Broome (5.9), Schuyler (5.9), Wyoming (5.91), Tompkins (5.99), Yates (6.1), Wayne (6.13), Jefferson (6.16), Livingston (6.19).

The range in New York runs from Hamilton at 4.72 to Kings at 7.15; Erie sits 53% of the way up.