Soil pH in Hale, AL: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Hale, AL

Typical topsoil in Hale, AL is pH 5.42, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7.7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Hale needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.1).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.42, spread about 77 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 357,700 surveyed acres in Hale, AL, 76% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 18% are alkaline (above 7.3), 5% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 1% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 7.9, a spread of 3.6 units across 97 soil components. 76% 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 21.4% clay and 1.97% 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. 19% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Hale against the rest of Alabama

pH 5.42 is 0.27 above the Alabama median of 5.15. 54 of 67 Alabama counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Wilcox (5.34), Henry (5.36), Tallapoosa (5.36), Perry (5.38), Lee (5.43), Morgan (5.44), Greene (5.48), Marengo (5.48).

The range in Alabama runs from Randolph at 4.89 to Lowndes at 6.25; Hale sits 39% of the way up.