Soil pH in Ocean, NJ: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Ocean, NJ

Typical topsoil in Ocean, NJ is pH 5.22, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 3.9 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Ocean needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; strawberries 2.4 lb/100 sq ft; roses 3.9 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 3 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.22, spread about 39 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 421,907 surveyed acres in Ocean, NJ, 63% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 21% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 8% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 8% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 8, a spread of 4 units across 337 soil components. 63% 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 5.9% 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. 12% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Ocean against the rest of New Jersey

pH 5.22 is 0.05 above the New Jersey median of 5.17. 13 of 21 New Jersey counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Union (5.14), Atlantic (5.17), Hunterdon (5.2), Mercer (5.21), Somerset (5.22), Salem (5.26), Cumberland (5.28), Morris (5.31).

The range in New Jersey runs from Burlington at 4.68 to Hudson at 6.98; Ocean sits 23% of the way up.