Soil pH in Red River, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Red River, TX

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

What Red River 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 586,791 surveyed acres in Red River, TX, 51% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 20% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 15% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 14% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 8.2, a spread of 3.9 units across 58 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 26.8% clay and 1.57% 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. 14% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Red River 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: Franklin (6.04), Harris (6.04), Leon (6.04), Rains (6.05), Waller (6.05), Henderson (6.08), Freestone (6.19), Grimes (6.23).

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