Soil pH in Larue, KY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Larue, KY

Typical topsoil in Larue, KY is pH 6.03, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Larue needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2), potatoes (off by 0), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.03, 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 157,798 surveyed acres in Larue, KY, 70% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 21% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 9% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 7, a spread of 2.4 units across 124 soil components. 70% 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 20% clay and 2.27% 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.

Larue against the rest of Kentucky

pH 6.03 is 0.24 above the Kentucky median of 5.79. 84 of 120 Kentucky counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Hardin (5.99), McCracken (5.99), Montgomery (6), Ballard (6.03), Boone (6.04), Gallatin (6.04), Kenton (6.09), Grant (6.11).

The range in Kentucky runs from Greenup at 5.09 to Carroll at 6.63; Larue sits 61% of the way up.