Soil pH in Guadalupe, NM: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Guadalupe, NM

Typical topsoil in Guadalupe, NM is pH 7.84 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Guadalupe needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.84, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 54% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 1,824,663 surveyed acres in Guadalupe, NM, 89% are alkaline (above 7.3), 11% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 7 to 8.5, a spread of 1.5 units across 219 soil components. 89% 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 17.7% 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. 54% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Guadalupe against the rest of New Mexico

pH 7.84 is 0.19 above the New Mexico median of 7.65. 22 of 33 New Mexico counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Sandoval (7.7), Hidalgo (7.71), Torrance (7.71), Sierra (7.82), Socorro (7.84), Chaves (7.87), Dona Ana (7.87), Luna (7.92).

The range in New Mexico runs from Colfax at 6.99 to Valencia at 8.07; Guadalupe sits 79% of the way up.