Soil pH in Ramsey, ND: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Ramsey, ND

Typical topsoil in Ramsey, ND is pH 7.27 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Ramsey needs, by plant

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

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.27, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 50% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 769,326 surveyed acres in Ramsey, ND, 53% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 47% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.1 to 8.2, a spread of 2.1 units across 747 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 25.5% clay and 4.85% 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. 50% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Ramsey against the rest of North Dakota

pH 7.27 is 0.07 above the North Dakota median of 7.2. 38 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: Logan (7.26), Steele (7.26), Divide (7.27), Nelson (7.27), Towner (7.27), Benson (7.28), Richland (7.28), Mountrail (7.29).

The range in North Dakota runs from Grant at 6.85 to Pembina at 7.5; Ramsey sits 65% of the way up.