Soil pH in McPherson, KS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in McPherson, KS

Typical topsoil in McPherson, KS is pH 6.06, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What McPherson needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1), potatoes (off by 0.1), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.06, 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 572,275 surveyed acres in McPherson, KS, 80% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 14% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 6% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.7 to 8.4, a spread of 3.7 units across 275 soil components. 80% 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 25.9% clay and 2.81% 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. 6% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

McPherson against the rest of Kansas

pH 6.06 is 0.51 below the Kansas median of 6.57. 3 of 105 Kansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Cherokee (5.95), Clay (6.05), Washington (6.05), Brown (6.06), Crawford (6.12), Montgomery (6.12), Woodson (6.13), Republic (6.14).

The range in Kansas runs from Cherokee at 5.95 to Wallace at 7.51; McPherson sits 7% of the way up.