Soil pH in Licking, OH: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Licking, OH

Typical topsoil in Licking, OH is pH 6.02, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Licking 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 6.02, 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 427,605 surveyed acres in Licking, OH, 73% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 13% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 12% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 7.9, a spread of 3.3 units across 257 soil components. 73% 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 19.8% clay and 2.44% 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. 2% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Licking against the rest of Ohio

pH 6.02 is 0.06 below the Ohio median of 6.08. 42 of 88 Ohio counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Lorain (5.99), Clermont (6), Richland (6.01), Ross (6.01), Fairfield (6.08), Wayne (6.08), Highland (6.09), Huron (6.17).

The range in Ohio runs from Monroe at 5.02 to Wood at 6.6; Licking sits 63% of the way up.