Soil pH in Pierce, ND: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Pierce, ND

Typical topsoil in Pierce, ND is pH 7.23, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Pierce needs, by plant

• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2).
• Beds or pots instead: tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test lands near 7.23, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 664,516 surveyed acres in Pierce, ND, 68% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 32% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.5 to 8.2, a spread of 1.7 units across 1,670 soil components. 68% 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 15.4% clay and 4.3% 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. 35% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Pierce against the rest of North Dakota

pH 7.23 is right at the North Dakota median of 7.2. 29 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: McKenzie (7.19), Slope (7.2), Ransom (7.22), Wells (7.22), Stutsman (7.23), Williams (7.23), Sheridan (7.25), Barnes (7.26).

The range in North Dakota runs from Grant at 6.85 to Pembina at 7.5; Pierce sits 58% of the way up.