Soil pH in Mono, CA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Mono, CA

Typical topsoil in Mono, CA is pH 6.79, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Mono needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.
• Sulfur: potatoes 1.6 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 1 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 2.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 0.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.79, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 968,975 surveyed acres in Mono, CA, 74% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 11% are alkaline (above 7.3), 11% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 5% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 10.1, a spread of 5.6 units across 2,109 soil components. 74% 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 9.1% clay and 2.31% 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. 10% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Mono against the rest of California

pH 6.79 is 0.25 above the California median of 6.54. 38 of 58 California counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Los Angeles (6.72), Fresno (6.75), Siskiyou (6.75), Lassen (6.77), Alameda (6.81), Monterey (6.81), San Joaquin (6.81), Colusa (6.89).

The range in California runs from Del Norte at 5.43 to Imperial at 8.16; Mono sits 50% of the way up.