Soil pH in Garden, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Garden, NE

Typical topsoil in Garden, NE is pH 6.85, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Garden needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0).
• Sulfur: potatoes 1.6 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 1 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 2.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 1.9 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 1.9 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 0.7 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.85, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 1,089,621 surveyed acres in Garden, NE, 82% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 16% are alkaline (above 7.3), 2% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 9.2, a spread of 3.4 units across 265 soil components. 82% 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 6.1% clay and 1.27% 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. 20% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Garden against the rest of Nebraska

pH 6.85 is 0.1 above the Nebraska median of 6.75. 55 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Valley (6.81), Buffalo (6.84), Custer (6.84), Greeley (6.84), Dodge (6.86), Nance (6.86), Harlan (6.87), Wayne (6.87).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Garden sits 57% of the way up.