Soil pH in Kittitas, WA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Kittitas, WA

Typical topsoil in Kittitas, WA is pH 6.47, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Kittitas needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 2.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.47, 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 1,109,572 surveyed acres in Kittitas, WA, 58% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 31% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 9% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.7 to 8.5, a spread of 3.8 units across 1,066 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 14.5% clay and 2.48% 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. 2% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Kittitas against the rest of Washington

pH 6.47 is 0.06 above the Washington median of 6.41. 21 of 39 Washington counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Thurston (5.76), Skamania (5.86), Spokane (6.41), Okanogan (6.45), Pend Oreille (6.49), Chelan (6.5), Klickitat (6.53), Ferry (6.61).

The range in Washington runs from Grays Harbor at 4.93 to Adams at 7.45; Kittitas sits 61% of the way up.