Soil pH in Fall River, SD: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Fall River, SD

Typical topsoil in Fall River, SD is pH 7.1, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Fall River needs, by plant

• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.1), vegetable garden (off by 0.1), roses (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: tomatoes 2 lb/100 sq ft; potatoes 5.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 3.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 7.1 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 6.1 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; blue hydrangeas 6.1 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; pink hydrangeas 2.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 7.1, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 1,105,955 surveyed acres in Fall River, SD, 70% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 25% are alkaline (above 7.3), 5% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 8.8, a spread of 4.3 units across 598 soil components. 70% 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 32.8% clay and 2.09% 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. 27% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Fall River against the rest of South Dakota

pH 7.1 is 0.11 above the South Dakota median of 6.99. 49 of 66 South Dakota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Faulk (7.07), Day (7.08), Roberts (7.08), Tripp (7.08), McPherson (7.12), Ziebach (7.13), Gregory (7.15), Meade (7.18).

The range in South Dakota runs from Lawrence at 6.49 to Jones at 7.47; Fall River sits 62% of the way up.