Soil pH in Howard, IA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Howard, IA

Typical topsoil in Howard, IA is pH 6.38, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Howard needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 3.2 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 6.38, 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 299,857 surveyed acres in Howard, IA, 51% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 47% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 2% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.3 to 7.9, a spread of 2.6 units across 258 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 23.1% clay and 4.31% 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. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Howard against the rest of Iowa

pH 6.38 is right at the Iowa median of 6.36. 52 of 99 Iowa counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Louisa (6.36), Mitchell (6.37), Wayne (6.37), Butler (6.38), Sac (6.38), Marshall (6.39), Plymouth (6.39), Ringgold (6.39).

The range in Iowa runs from Van Buren at 6.02 to Monona at 7.11; Howard sits 33% of the way up.