Soil pH in Madison, AL: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Madison, AL

Typical topsoil in Madison, AL is pH 5.73, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 9.2 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Madison needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: blueberries (off by 0.2), blue hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.73, spread about 92 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 442,284 surveyed acres in Madison, AL, 50% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 31% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 19% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 7.3, a spread of 3 units across 236 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 27.6% clay and 1.84% 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.

Madison against the rest of Alabama

pH 5.73 is 0.58 above the Alabama median of 5.15. 65 of 67 Alabama counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Chambers (5.57), Jackson (5.65), Lawrence (5.65), Montgomery (5.71), Lowndes (6.25).

The range in Alabama runs from Randolph at 4.89 to Lowndes at 6.25; Madison sits 62% of the way up.