Soil pH in Muskingum, OH: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Muskingum, OH

Typical topsoil in Muskingum, OH is pH 5.79, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Muskingum needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Lime: tomatoes 4.9 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 1.2 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.79, 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 377,020 surveyed acres in Muskingum, OH, 57% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 28% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 10% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 4% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.6 to 7.9, a spread of 4.3 units across 338 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 19.9% clay and 2.33% 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).

Muskingum against the rest of Ohio

pH 5.79 is 0.29 below the Ohio median of 6.08. 27 of 88 Ohio counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Holmes (5.72), Lake (5.73), Portage (5.75), Geauga (5.77), Columbiana (5.83), Jefferson (5.83), Ashland (5.84), Belmont (5.85).

The range in Ohio runs from Monroe at 5.02 to Wood at 6.6; Muskingum sits 49% of the way up.