Soil pH in Lake, SD: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Lake, SD

Typical topsoil in Lake, SD is pH 6.71, 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, roses.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: potatoes 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blueberries 5.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.71, 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 358,519 surveyed acres in Lake, SD, 73% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 14% are alkaline (above 7.3), 12% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 6 to 8.2, a spread of 2.2 units across 264 soil components. 73% 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 29.3% clay and 4.41% 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. 14% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Lake against the rest of South Dakota

pH 6.71 is 0.28 below the South Dakota median of 6.99. 2 of 66 South Dakota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Lawrence (6.49), Sully (6.64), Douglas (6.76), Lincoln (6.76), Moody (6.78), Potter (6.78).

The range in South Dakota runs from Lawrence at 6.49 to Jones at 7.47; Lake sits 22% of the way up.