Soil pH in Leflore, MS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Leflore, MS

Typical topsoil in Leflore, MS is pH 5.44, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 12.7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Leflore needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.1).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; vegetable garden 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; tomatoes 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; roses 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.44, spread about 127 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 3 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 356,342 surveyed acres in Leflore, MS, 54% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 38% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 7% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 7, a spread of 3 units across 78 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 34.4% clay and 2.37% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Leflore against the rest of Mississippi

pH 5.44 is 0.29 above the Mississippi median of 5.15. 60 of 82 Mississippi counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Monroe (5.36), Holmes (5.4), Oktibbeha (5.4), Claiborne (5.43), Hinds (5.45), Carroll (5.47), Jefferson (5.47), DeSoto (5.5).

The range in Mississippi runs from Hancock at 4.85 to Issaquena at 6.73; Leflore sits 31% of the way up.