Soil pH in Johnson, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Johnson, NE

Typical topsoil in Johnson, NE is pH 6.24, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Johnson needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: potatoes (off by 0.2), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: blueberries 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.24, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 239,423 surveyed acres in Johnson, NE, 59% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 38% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 3% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7.9, a spread of 2.9 units across 131 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 32.6% clay and 2.7% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Johnson against the rest of Nebraska

pH 6.24 is 0.51 below the Nebraska median of 6.75. 16 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Otoe (6.17), Pawnee (6.2), Adams (6.23), Saunders (6.23), Polk (6.26), Sarpy (6.3), Richardson (6.34), Butler (6.35).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Johnson sits 21% of the way up.