Soil pH in Lake, CA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Lake, CA

Typical topsoil in Lake, CA is pH 6.28, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Lake needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.28, 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 643,404 surveyed acres in Lake, CA, 54% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 42% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 3% are alkaline (above 7.3), 2% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.8 to 8, a spread of 3.2 units across 323 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 20% clay and 1.98% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Lake against the rest of California

pH 6.28 is 0.26 below the California median of 6.54. 19 of 58 California counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Tehama (6.2), Yuba (6.25), San Mateo (6.26), Butte (6.27), Sacramento (6.29), Trinity (6.29), Glenn (6.34), Napa (6.37).

The range in California runs from Del Norte at 5.43 to Imperial at 8.16; Lake sits 31% of the way up.