Soil pH in Pierce, WI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Pierce, WI

Typical topsoil in Pierce, WI is pH 6.2, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Pierce needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: potatoes (off by 0.2), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.8 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 6.2, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 365,457 surveyed acres in Pierce, WI, 82% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 17% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 8, a spread of 3.7 units across 619 soil components. 82% 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 14.8% clay and 2.48% 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. 0% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Pierce against the rest of Wisconsin

pH 6.2 is 0.12 above the Wisconsin median of 6.08. 44 of 72 Wisconsin counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Waushara (6.15), Crawford (6.16), Sauk (6.17), Vernon (6.19), Grant (6.39), Iowa (6.39), Marquette (6.42), Kenosha (6.47).

The range in Wisconsin runs from Iron at 5.16 to Washington at 6.88; Pierce sits 60% of the way up.