Soil pH in Lander, NV: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Lander, NV

Typical topsoil in Lander, NV is pH 7.77 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 Lander 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 7.77, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 32% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 3,392,715 surveyed acres in Lander, NV, 62% are alkaline (above 7.3), 38% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.8 to 10.1, a spread of 5.3 units across 2,771 soil components. 62% 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 15.9% clay and 1.32% 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. 32% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Lander against the rest of Nevada

pH 7.77 is right at the Nevada median of 7.78. 7 of 17 Nevada counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Washoe (7.25), Lyon (7.58), Elko (7.69), Eureka (7.73), Humboldt (7.78), Lincoln (7.87), Mineral (7.91), Nye (8.02).

The range in Nevada runs from Carson City at 6.85 to Esmeralda at 8.33; Lander sits 62% of the way up.