Soil pH in Kusilvak Census Area (old Wade Hampton), AK: Lime or Sulfur?
Typical topsoil pH in Kusilvak Census Area (old Wade Hampton), AK
Typical topsoil in Kusilvak Census Area (old Wade Hampton), AK is pH 5.04, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 10.5 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.
What Kusilvak Census Area (old Wade Hampton) needs, by plant
- Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
- Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; vegetable garden 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; tomatoes 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 8.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.
What to do next
If your test confirms pH near 5.04, spread about 105 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 3 doses, ideally in fall.
How mixed the soil is
Of the 0 surveyed acres in Kusilvak Census Area (old Wade Hampton), AK, 79% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 19% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 2% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 7.5, a spread of 3 units across 38 soil components. 79% 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 5.2% clay and 5.67% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. At 5.67% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the loam bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.
Kusilvak Census Area (old Wade Hampton) against the rest of Alaska
pH 5.04 is 0.22 below the Alaska median of 5.26. 8 of 27 Alaska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.
Closest in pH within the state: Anchorage Borough (4.89), Dillingham Census Area (4.94), Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area (4.94), Kodiak Island Borough (4.96), Haines Borough (5.1), Valdez-Cordova Census Area (5.15), Matanuska-Susitna Borough (5.2), Northwest Arctic Borough (5.23).
The range in Alaska runs from Ketchikan Gateway Borough at 4.52 to Yakutat City and Borough at 6.08; Kusilvak Census Area (old Wade Hampton) sits 33% of the way up.