Soil pH in Pike, IN: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Pike, IN

Typical topsoil in Pike, IN is pH 5.97, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Pike needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0), vegetable garden (off by 0), tomatoes (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0), pink hydrangeas (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.97, 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 208,481 surveyed acres in Pike, IN, 58% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 26% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 15% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.5 to 7.5, a spread of 3 units across 112 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 19.1% clay and 2.37% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Pike against the rest of Indiana

pH 5.97 is 0.38 below the Indiana median of 6.35. 18 of 92 Indiana counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Owen (5.87), Harrison (5.91), Jennings (5.92), Ripley (5.93), Spencer (5.97), Jefferson (6.04), Starke (6.08), Clay (6.13).

The range in Indiana runs from Brown at 4.97 to Hamilton at 6.74; Pike sits 56% of the way up.