Soil pH in Hickman, KY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Hickman, KY

Typical topsoil in Hickman, KY is pH 5.96, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Hickman needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0), vegetable garden (off by 0), tomatoes (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0), pink hydrangeas (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.96, 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 139,921 surveyed acres in Hickman, KY, 37% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 37% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 27% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7.3, a spread of 2.3 units across 74 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 15.1% clay and 1.75% 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.

Hickman against the rest of Kentucky

pH 5.96 is 0.17 above the Kentucky median of 5.79. 77 of 120 Kentucky counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Carlisle (5.94), Jefferson (5.94), Nelson (5.95), Bullitt (5.96), Fleming (5.97), McLean (5.98), Hardin (5.99), McCracken (5.99).

The range in Kentucky runs from Greenup at 5.09 to Carroll at 6.63; Hickman sits 56% of the way up.