Soil pH in Hood River, OR: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Hood River, OR

Typical topsoil in Hood River, OR is pH 6.31, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Hood River needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 2.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.31, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 101,806 surveyed acres in Hood River, OR, 60% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 40% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.6 to 7, a spread of 1.4 units across 60 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 18.5% clay and 3.59% 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.

Hood River against the rest of Oregon

pH 6.31 is right at the Oregon median of 6.3. 18 of 36 Oregon counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Douglas (5.73), Marion (5.75), Josephine (6.18), Jackson (6.29), Grant (6.43), Wheeler (6.58), Klamath (6.7), Wallowa (6.72).

The range in Oregon runs from Clatsop at 4.89 to Malheur at 7.9; Hood River sits 47% of the way up.