Soil pH in Mineral, MT: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Mineral, MT

Typical topsoil in Mineral, MT is pH 6.1, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Mineral 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 6.1, 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 667,512 surveyed acres in Mineral, MT, 73% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 14% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 12% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.4 to 7.6, a spread of 2.2 units across 350 soil components. 73% 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 12.6% clay and 2.22% 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. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Mineral against the rest of Montana

pH 6.1 is 1.2 below the Montana median of 7.3. 3 of 56 Montana counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Flathead (6.02), Ravalli (6.02), Lincoln (6.09), Missoula (6.29), Silver Bow (6.3), Park (6.31), Deer Lodge (6.33).

The range in Montana runs from Flathead at 6.02 to Wheatland at 7.77; Mineral sits 5% of the way up.