Soil pH in Lincoln, AR: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Lincoln, AR

Typical topsoil in Lincoln, AR is pH 5.58, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 10.4 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Lincoln needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: blueberries (off by 0.1), blue hydrangeas (off by 0.1).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 10.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; vegetable garden 10.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; tomatoes 10.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; roses 10.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.58, spread about 104 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 323,104 surveyed acres in Lincoln, AR, 58% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 30% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 11% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7.9, a spread of 2.9 units across 41 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 27.4% clay and 1.75% 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.

Lincoln against the rest of Arkansas

pH 5.58 is 0.14 above the Arkansas median of 5.44. 45 of 75 Arkansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Carroll (5.47), Lonoke (5.51), Conway (5.54), Cross (5.56), Hempstead (5.59), Prairie (5.59), Izard (5.6), Arkansas (5.62).

The range in Arkansas runs from Madison at 5.02 to Desha at 6.33; Lincoln sits 43% of the way up.