Soil pH in Nye, NV: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Nye, NV

Typical topsoil in Nye, NV is pH 8.02 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Nye needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 8.02, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 74% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 8,194,472 surveyed acres in Nye, NV, 79% are alkaline (above 7.3), 20% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 10.1, a spread of 4.3 units across 4,062 soil components. 79% 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 13.7% clay and 1.06% 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. 74% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Nye against the rest of Nevada

pH 8.02 is 0.24 above the Nevada median of 7.78. 11 of 17 Nevada counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Lander (7.77), Humboldt (7.78), Lincoln (7.87), Mineral (7.91), Pershing (8.07), Churchill (8.08), White Pine (8.09), Clark (8.19).

The range in Nevada runs from Carson City at 6.85 to Esmeralda at 8.33; Nye sits 79% of the way up.