Soil pH in Liberty, MT: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Liberty, MT

Typical topsoil in Liberty, MT is pH 7.32 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 Liberty 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 7.32, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 37% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 898,848 surveyed acres in Liberty, MT, 61% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 38% are alkaline (above 7.3), 1% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 8.8, a spread of 3 units across 730 soil components. 61% 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 27.6% clay and 1.89% 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. 37% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Liberty against the rest of Montana

pH 7.32 is right at the Montana median of 7.3. 28 of 56 Montana counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Cascade (7.27), Daniels (7.28), Fergus (7.28), Carbon (7.32), Stillwater (7.33), Toole (7.33), Carter (7.34), Judith Basin (7.34).

The range in Montana runs from Flathead at 6.02 to Wheatland at 7.77; Liberty sits 74% of the way up.