Soil pH in Herkimer, NY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Herkimer, NY

Typical topsoil in Herkimer, NY is pH 5.14, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 4.2 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Herkimer needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 2.7 lb/100 sq ft; roses 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 3.3 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.14, spread about 42 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 770,263 surveyed acres in Herkimer, NY, 67% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 20% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 13% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.8 to 7.3, a spread of 3.5 units across 563 soil components. 67% 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 8.8% clay and 3.98% organic matter, which this site treats as sandy. Moving it one pH unit takes about 3 lb of lime or 1.2 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 2% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Herkimer against the rest of New York

pH 5.14 is 0.63 below the New York median of 5.77. 8 of 62 New York counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Putnam (4.94), Lewis (5.01), Westchester (5.05), Sullivan (5.11), Warren (5.15), Fulton (5.17), Nassau (5.19), Oswego (5.23).

The range in New York runs from Hamilton at 4.72 to Kings at 7.15; Herkimer sits 17% of the way up.