Soil pH in Madison, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Madison, TX

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

What Madison 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 273,012 surveyed acres in Madison, TX, 70% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 29% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 1% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.9 to 7.3, a spread of 2.4 units across 58 soil components. 70% 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 15.3% clay and 1.14% 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. 0% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Madison against the rest of Texas

pH 6.02 is 1.41 below the Texas median of 7.43. 36 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Anderson (5.87), Chambers (5.89), Van Zandt (5.91), Colorado (6.01), Franklin (6.04), Harris (6.04), Leon (6.04), Rains (6.05).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Madison sits 39% of the way up.