Soil pH in McCormick, SC: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in McCormick, SC

Typical topsoil in McCormick, SC is pH 5.5, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What McCormick needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.5, spread about 70 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 224,979 surveyed acres in McCormick, SC, 64% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 33% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 4% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 6.5, a spread of 2 units across 94 soil components. 64% 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 14.5% clay and 1.03% 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. 2% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

McCormick against the rest of South Carolina

pH 5.5 is 0.2 above the South Carolina median of 5.3. 36 of 46 South Carolina counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Spartanburg (5.44), Pickens (5.45), Richland (5.45), Edgefield (5.47), Laurens (5.53), Fairfield (5.54), Greenwood (5.55), Anderson (5.59).

The range in South Carolina runs from Charleston at 4.8 to Beaufort at 5.92; McCormick sits 63% of the way up.