Soil pH in Montgomery, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Montgomery, TX

Typical topsoil in Montgomery, TX is pH 5.27, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 8.4 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Montgomery needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.2).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 8.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 8.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 8.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 8.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.27, spread about 84 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 595,718 surveyed acres in Montgomery, TX, 52% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 40% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 4% are alkaline (above 7.3), 4% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.8 to 7.9, a spread of 4.1 units across 93 soil components. No single class covers 60% of the county, so two gardens a few miles apart here can need opposite treatments. Test your own bed.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 11.5% clay and 1.41% 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. 4% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Montgomery against the rest of Texas

pH 5.27 is 2.16 below the Texas median of 7.43. 7 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Newton (5.17), San Jacinto (5.21), Tyler (5.21), Polk (5.23), Orange (5.31), Marion (5.36), Harrison (5.37), Angelina (5.38).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Montgomery sits 18% of the way up.