Soil pH in Hickory, MO: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Hickory, MO

Typical topsoil in Hickory, MO is pH 5.92, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Hickory needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.1), vegetable garden (off by 0.1), roses (off by 0.1), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.1).
• Lime: tomatoes 4.2 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.92, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 245,134 surveyed acres in Hickory, MO, 77% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 18% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 5% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 7.3, a spread of 2.8 units across 221 soil components. 77% 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 22.6% clay and 1.92% 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.

Hickory against the rest of Missouri

pH 5.92 is 0.21 below the Missouri median of 6.13. 41 of 114 Missouri counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Vernon (5.89), Gasconade (5.9), Stoddard (5.9), Stone (5.91), St. Clair (5.92), Lawrence (5.93), Cape Girardeau (5.97), Morgan (5.99).

The range in Missouri runs from Carter at 5.08 to Knox at 6.71; Hickory sits 52% of the way up.