Soil pH in Fairfield, OH: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Fairfield, OH

Typical topsoil in Fairfield, OH is pH 6.08, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Fairfield needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1), potatoes (off by 0.1), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.08, 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 296,669 surveyed acres in Fairfield, OH, 66% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 21% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 12% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.4 to 7.9, a spread of 3.5 units across 268 soil components. 66% 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 21.1% clay and 2.67% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Fairfield against the rest of Ohio

pH 6.08 is right at the Ohio median of 6.08. 43 of 88 Ohio counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Clermont (6), Richland (6.01), Ross (6.01), Licking (6.02), Wayne (6.08), Highland (6.09), Huron (6.17), Warren (6.17).

The range in Ohio runs from Monroe at 5.02 to Wood at 6.6; Fairfield sits 67% of the way up.