Soil pH in Henry, IA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Henry, IA

Typical topsoil in Henry, IA is pH 6.18, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Henry needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0), 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 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.18, 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 274,715 surveyed acres in Henry, IA, 62% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 38% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.5 to 7.4, a spread of 1.9 units across 383 soil components. 62% 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 25.8% clay and 3.01% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Henry against the rest of Iowa

pH 6.18 is 0.18 below the Iowa median of 6.36. 10 of 99 Iowa counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Monroe (6.15), Jefferson (6.16), Crawford (6.17), Cherokee (6.18), Page (6.18), Sioux (6.2), Marion (6.21), Wapello (6.21).

The range in Iowa runs from Van Buren at 6.02 to Monona at 7.11; Henry sits 15% of the way up.