Soil pH in Rains, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Rains, TX

Typical topsoil in Rains, TX is pH 6.05, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Rains needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2), potatoes (off by 0), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.05, 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 132,133 surveyed acres in Rains, TX, 63% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 37% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.5 to 8.2, a spread of 2.7 units across 25 soil components. 63% 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 16.8% clay and 1.69% 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).

Rains against the rest of Texas

pH 6.05 is 1.38 below the Texas median of 7.43. 40 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is level with than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Madison (6.02), Franklin (6.04), Harris (6.04), Leon (6.04), Red River (6.05), Waller (6.05), Henderson (6.08), Freestone (6.19).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Rains sits 40% of the way up.