Soil pH in Kittson, MN: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Kittson, MN

Typical topsoil in Kittson, MN is pH 7.37 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 Kittson 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 7.37, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 52% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 702,943 surveyed acres in Kittson, MN, 64% are alkaline (above 7.3), 32% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 4% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 6.1 to 7.9, a spread of 1.8 units across 445 soil components. 64% of the land falls in one class, so the county figure is a fair first guess for most yards here.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 30.2% clay and 5.01% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 5.01% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the clay bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 52% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Kittson against the rest of Minnesota

pH 7.37 is 0.73 above the Minnesota median of 6.64. 80 of 87 Minnesota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Stevens (7.31), Red Lake (7.32), Big Stone (7.36), Chippewa (7.37), Marshall (7.37), Polk (7.4), Clay (7.43), Norman (7.49).

The range in Minnesota runs from Cook at 5.21 to Swift at 7.49; Kittson sits 95% of the way up.