Soil pH in Red Lake, MN: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Red Lake, MN

Typical topsoil in Red Lake, MN is pH 7.32 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 Red Lake 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 7.32, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 44% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 273,205 surveyed acres in Red Lake, MN, 62% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 38% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.5 to 7.9, a spread of 1.4 units across 391 soil components. 62% 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 16.7% clay and 4.76% 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. 44% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Red Lake against the rest of Minnesota

pH 7.32 is 0.68 above the Minnesota median of 6.64. 78 of 87 Minnesota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Traverse (7.21), Lac qui Parle (7.22), Wilkin (7.28), Stevens (7.31), Big Stone (7.36), Chippewa (7.37), Kittson (7.37), Marshall (7.37).

The range in Minnesota runs from Cook at 5.21 to Swift at 7.49; Red Lake sits 93% of the way up.