Soil pH in Hughes, SD: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Hughes, SD

Typical topsoil in Hughes, SD is pH 6.8, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Hughes needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.
• Sulfur: potatoes 3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 1.2 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.8, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 468,031 surveyed acres in Hughes, SD, 41% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 38% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 21% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.3 to 8.8, a spread of 2.5 units across 398 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 25.9% clay and 2.98% 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. 28% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Hughes against the rest of South Dakota

pH 6.8 is 0.19 below the South Dakota median of 6.99. 7 of 66 South Dakota 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 (6.76), Lincoln (6.76), Moody (6.78), Potter (6.78), Beadle (6.82), Miner (6.82), Aurora (6.83), Hand (6.83).

The range in South Dakota runs from Lawrence at 6.49 to Jones at 7.47; Hughes sits 32% of the way up.