Soil pH in Montgomery, PA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Montgomery, PA

Typical topsoil in Montgomery, PA is pH 5.91, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Montgomery needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.1), vegetable garden (off by 0.1), roses (off by 0.1), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.1).
• Lime: tomatoes 4.2 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.91, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 221,429 surveyed acres in Montgomery, PA, 75% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 19% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 6% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 7, a spread of 3 units across 424 soil components. 75% 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 17.1% clay and 2.47% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Montgomery against the rest of Pennsylvania

pH 5.91 is 0.6 above the Pennsylvania median of 5.31. 63 of 67 Pennsylvania counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Chester (5.79), Lancaster (5.81), Lawrence (5.84), Delaware (5.86), Bucks (5.92), Washington (6.04), Greene (6.07).

The range in Pennsylvania runs from Forest at 4.57 to Greene at 6.07; Montgomery sits 89% of the way up.