Soil pH in Hamilton, OH: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Hamilton, OH

Typical topsoil in Hamilton, OH is pH 6.25, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Hamilton needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 2.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.25, 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 136,019 surveyed acres in Hamilton, OH, 51% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 22% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 21% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 6% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 7.9, a spread of 3.3 units across 578 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 28.6% clay and 1.54% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 9% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Hamilton against the rest of Ohio

pH 6.25 is 0.17 above the Ohio median of 6.08. 50 of 88 Ohio counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Warren (6.17), Morrow (6.2), Erie (6.24), Clinton (6.25), Crawford (6.26), Madison (6.33), Delaware (6.34), Franklin (6.35).

The range in Ohio runs from Monroe at 5.02 to Wood at 6.6; Hamilton sits 78% of the way up.