Soil pH in Pope, IL: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Pope, IL

Typical topsoil in Pope, IL is pH 5.5, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Pope needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.5, spread about 70 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 215,446 surveyed acres in Pope, IL, 49% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 48% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 3% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.8 to 7.3, a spread of 2.5 units across 205 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 20% clay and 1.63% 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).

Pope against the rest of Illinois

pH 5.5 is 0.9 below the Illinois median of 6.4. 0 of 102 Illinois counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Johnson (5.56), Hardin (5.65), Massac (5.81), Williamson (5.92).