Soil pH in Onondaga, NY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Onondaga, NY

Typical topsoil in Onondaga, NY is pH 6.27, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Onondaga needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.27, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 405,366 surveyed acres in Onondaga, NY, 59% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 37% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 4% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 8.2, a spread of 3.6 units across 316 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 18.5% clay and 4.36% 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. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Onondaga against the rest of New York

pH 6.27 is 0.5 above the New York median of 5.77. 49 of 62 New York counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Livingston (6.19), Madison (6.25), Monroe (6.25), Cayuga (6.27), Orleans (6.28), Montgomery (6.29), Richmond (6.31), Niagara (6.34).

The range in New York runs from Hamilton at 4.72 to Kings at 7.15; Onondaga sits 64% of the way up.