Soil pH in Milwaukee, WI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Milwaukee, WI

Typical topsoil in Milwaukee, WI is pH 6.69, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Milwaukee needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: potatoes 2.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 3.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.69, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 93,016 surveyed acres in Milwaukee, WI, 72% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 27% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 7.9, a spread of 2.1 units across 157 soil components. 72% 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 22% clay and 2.49% 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. 3% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Milwaukee against the rest of Wisconsin

pH 6.69 is 0.61 above the Wisconsin median of 6.08. 56 of 72 Wisconsin counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Columbia (6.55), Rock (6.57), Walworth (6.63), Green Lake (6.69), Outagamie (6.69), Brown (6.74), Fond du Lac (6.76), Kewaunee (6.76).

The range in Wisconsin runs from Iron at 5.16 to Washington at 6.88; Milwaukee sits 89% of the way up.