Soil pH in Haywood, NC: Lime or Sulfur?
Typical topsoil pH in Haywood, NC
Typical topsoil in Haywood, NC is pH 4.85, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 19.6 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.
What Haywood needs, by plant
- Already in range: blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
- Just outside, test first: potatoes (off by 0.2), blue hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
- Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 19.6 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; vegetable garden 19.6 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; tomatoes 19.6 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; strawberries 13.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; roses 19.6 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; pink hydrangeas 16.1 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications.
What to do next
If your test confirms pH near 4.85, spread about 196 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 4 doses, ideally in fall.
How mixed the soil is
Of the 331,701 surveyed acres in Haywood, NC, 90% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 10% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 3.3 to 6.5, a spread of 3.2 units across 516 soil components. 90% 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 15.8% clay and 6.67% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 6.67% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the clay bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.
Haywood against the rest of North Carolina
pH 4.85 is 0.31 below the North Carolina median of 5.16. 11 of 100 North Carolina counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.
Closest in pH within the state: Bertie (4.84), Craven (4.84), Gates (4.84), Wilson (4.84), Martin (4.85), Edgecombe (4.89), Lenoir (4.89), Bladen (4.9).
The range in North Carolina runs from Swain at 4.56 to Davie at 5.9; Haywood sits 22% of the way up.