Soil pH in Garrard, KY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Garrard, KY

Typical topsoil in Garrard, KY is pH 6.26, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Garrard needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.26, 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 131,256 surveyed acres in Garrard, KY, 46% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 43% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 5% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 5% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.1 to 7.9, a spread of 3.8 units across 173 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 24.8% clay and 2.4% 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. 16% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Garrard against the rest of Kentucky

pH 6.26 is 0.47 above the Kentucky median of 5.79. 102 of 120 Kentucky counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Union (6.19), Boyle (6.21), Henry (6.21), Mason (6.25), Scott (6.27), Washington (6.28), Clark (6.3), Spencer (6.33).

The range in Kentucky runs from Greenup at 5.09 to Carroll at 6.63; Garrard sits 76% of the way up.