Soil pH in Manistee, MI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Manistee, MI

Typical topsoil in Manistee, MI is pH 5.06, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 4.2 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Manistee needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 2.7 lb/100 sq ft; roses 4.2 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 3.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.06, spread about 42 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 332,780 surveyed acres in Manistee, MI, 69% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 25% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 4% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 2 to 8.1, a spread of 6.1 units across 622 soil components. 69% 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 3.4% clay and 3.6% organic matter, which this site treats as sandy. Moving it one pH unit takes about 3 lb of lime or 1.2 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Manistee against the rest of Michigan

pH 5.06 is 0.98 below the Michigan median of 6.04. 8 of 83 Michigan counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Luce (4.93), Ontonagon (5), Benzie (5.04), Oscoda (5.05), Keweenaw (5.09), Alger (5.11), Marquette (5.14), Roscommon (5.18).

The range in Michigan runs from Baraga at 4.72 to Huron at 7.03; Manistee sits 15% of the way up.