Soil pH in Jeff Davis, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Jeff Davis, TX

Typical topsoil in Jeff Davis, TX is pH 7.44 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Jeff Davis needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.44, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 70% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 1,000,767 surveyed acres in Jeff Davis, TX, 56% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 44% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.7 to 8.2, a spread of 1.5 units across 63 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 24.8% clay and 2.14% 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. 70% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Jeff Davis against the rest of Texas

pH 7.44 is right at the Texas median of 7.43. 128 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Swisher (7.41), Collingsworth (7.42), Karnes (7.43), Motley (7.43), San Patricio (7.44), Winkler (7.45), Kent (7.46), Fisher (7.47).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Jeff Davis sits 79% of the way up.