Soil pH in Rutherford, TN: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Rutherford, TN

Typical topsoil in Rutherford, TN is pH 6.14, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Rutherford needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1), potatoes (off by 0.1), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.14, 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 338,683 surveyed acres in Rutherford, TN, 63% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 35% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 7.3, a spread of 3 units across 169 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 26.9% clay and 2.35% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Rutherford against the rest of Tennessee

pH 6.14 is 0.79 above the Tennessee median of 5.35. 92 of 95 Tennessee counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Robertson (5.89), Trousdale (5.97), Wilson (5.98), Tipton (6.01), Lauderdale (6.2), Lake (6.59).

The range in Tennessee runs from Bledsoe at 4.78 to Lake at 6.59; Rutherford sits 75% of the way up.