Soil pH in Grimes, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Grimes, TX

Typical topsoil in Grimes, TX is pH 6.23, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Grimes needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: potatoes (off by 0.2), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.8 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 6.23, 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 469,782 surveyed acres in Grimes, TX, 54% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 21% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 16% are alkaline (above 7.3), 9% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 8.2, a spread of 3.6 units across 106 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 18.8% clay and 1.31% 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. 18% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Grimes against the rest of Texas

pH 6.23 is 1.2 below the Texas median of 7.43. 45 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Red River (6.05), Waller (6.05), Henderson (6.08), Freestone (6.19), Hopkins (6.25), Brazos (6.28), Jackson (6.28), Lee (6.28).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Grimes sits 45% of the way up.