Soil pH in Otero, NM: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Otero, NM

Typical topsoil in Otero, NM is pH 7.92 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 Otero 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 7.92, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 79% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 3,188,606 surveyed acres in Otero, NM, 90% are alkaline (above 7.3), 10% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.1 to 8.5, a spread of 2.4 units across 797 soil components. 90% 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 17.7% clay and 1.39% 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. 79% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Otero against the rest of New Mexico

pH 7.92 is 0.27 above the New Mexico median of 7.65. 26 of 33 New Mexico counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Socorro (7.84), Chaves (7.87), Dona Ana (7.87), Luna (7.92), Lincoln (7.95), Bernalillo (7.97), De Baca (8.01), San Juan (8.03).

The range in New Mexico runs from Colfax at 6.99 to Valencia at 8.07; Otero sits 86% of the way up.