Soil pH in Lancaster, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Lancaster, NE

Typical topsoil in Lancaster, NE is pH 6.09, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Lancaster needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1), potatoes (off by 0.1), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: blueberries 3.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.09, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 521,517 surveyed acres in Lancaster, NE, 77% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 19% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 4% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7.9, a spread of 2.9 units across 276 soil components. 77% 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 31.5% clay and 2.99% 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. 4% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Lancaster against the rest of Nebraska

pH 6.09 is 0.66 below the Nebraska median of 6.75. 5 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: York (5.98), Saline (6), Hamilton (6.04), Jefferson (6.09), Thayer (6.1), Cass (6.11), Gage (6.12), Nuckolls (6.14).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Lancaster sits 12% of the way up.