Soil pH in Monmouth, NJ: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Monmouth, NJ

Typical topsoil in Monmouth, NJ is pH 4.95, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 4.5 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Monmouth needs, by plant

• Already in range: blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: potatoes (off by 0), blue hydrangeas (off by 0).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 3 lb/100 sq ft; roses 4.5 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 3.9 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 4.95, spread about 45 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 275,392 surveyed acres in Monmouth, NJ, 71% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 28% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 1% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.9 to 8, a spread of 4.1 units across 445 soil components. 71% 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 9% clay and 2.36% 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).

Monmouth against the rest of New Jersey

pH 4.95 is 0.22 below the New Jersey median of 5.17. 3 of 21 New Jersey counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Burlington (4.68), Essex (4.69), Passaic (4.89), Sussex (4.99), Bergen (5), Camden (5), Cape May (5).

The range in New Jersey runs from Burlington at 4.68 to Hudson at 6.98; Monmouth sits 12% of the way up.