Soil pH in Gem, ID: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Gem, ID

Typical topsoil in Gem, ID is pH 6.99, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Gem needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: potatoes 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 4.6 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.99, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 276,830 surveyed acres in Gem, ID, 81% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 11% are alkaline (above 7.3), 9% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 9.4, a spread of 3.6 units across 287 soil components. 81% 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 18.5% clay and 2.48% 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. 5% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Gem against the rest of Idaho

pH 6.99 is right at the Idaho median of 7.01. 20 of 44 Idaho counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Teton (6.87), Blaine (6.91), Bannock (6.93), Washington (6.95), Lincoln (7.01), Owyhee (7.02), Gooding (7.04), Bonneville (7.1).

The range in Idaho runs from Valley at 6.04 to Jefferson at 8.06; Gem sits 47% of the way up.