Soil pH in Pembina, ND: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Pembina, ND

Typical topsoil in Pembina, ND is pH 7.5 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 Pembina 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 7.5, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 66% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 712,934 surveyed acres in Pembina, ND, 61% are alkaline (above 7.3), 39% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 8.2, a spread of 2.4 units across 563 soil components. 61% 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 29.4% clay and 4.68% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 66% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Pembina against the rest of North Dakota

pH 7.5 is 0.3 above the North Dakota median of 7.2. 52 of 53 North Dakota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Walsh (7.38), Traill (7.39), Golden Valley (7.41), Grand Forks (7.48).