Soil pH in Luzerne, PA: Lime or Sulfur?
Typical topsoil pH in Luzerne, PA
Typical topsoil in Luzerne, PA is pH 5.4, 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 Luzerne 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 5.4, 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 535,277 surveyed acres in Luzerne, PA, 46% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 44% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 10% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.6 to 6.6, a spread of 3 units across 283 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 15.4% clay and 7.46% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 7.46% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the clay bracket. 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.
Luzerne against the rest of Pennsylvania
pH 5.4 is 0.09 above the Pennsylvania median of 5.31. 38 of 67 Pennsylvania counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.
Closest in pH within the state: Erie (5.32), Montour (5.33), Bedford (5.38), Sullivan (5.39), Westmoreland (5.43), Wayne (5.44), Beaver (5.46), Dauphin (5.47).
The range in Pennsylvania runs from Forest at 4.57 to Greene at 6.07; Luzerne sits 55% of the way up.