Soil pH in Reno, KS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Reno, KS

Typical topsoil in Reno, KS is pH 6.21, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Reno needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: potatoes (off by 0.2), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.21, 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 796,035 surveyed acres in Reno, KS, 60% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 15% are alkaline (above 7.3), 13% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 13% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.7 to 8.7, a spread of 4 units across 333 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 13.3% clay and 1.52% 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. 8% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Reno against the rest of Kansas

pH 6.21 is 0.36 below the Kansas median of 6.57. 16 of 105 Kansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Marshall (6.17), Atchison (6.18), Nemaha (6.19), Anderson (6.2), Harvey (6.22), Stafford (6.22), Allen (6.23), Johnson (6.23).

The range in Kansas runs from Cherokee at 5.95 to Wallace at 7.51; Reno sits 17% of the way up.