Soil pH in Hinsdale, CO: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Hinsdale, CO

Typical topsoil in Hinsdale, CO is pH 5.93, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Hinsdale 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 6.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.
• Sulfur: blueberries 3.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.93, 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 241,576 surveyed acres in Hinsdale, CO, 63% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 24% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 13% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.8 to 7.6, a spread of 2.8 units across 221 soil components. 63% 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 19.3% clay and 13.24% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 13.24% 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. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Hinsdale against the rest of Colorado

pH 5.93 is 1.24 below the Colorado median of 7.17. 1 of 63 Colorado counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: San Juan (5.53), Clear Creek (6), Gilpin (6.24), Lake (6.37), Teller (6.41).

The range in Colorado runs from San Juan at 5.53 to Alamosa at 8.28; Hinsdale sits 15% of the way up.