Soil pH in Saginaw, MI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Saginaw, MI

Typical topsoil in Saginaw, MI is pH 7.02, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Saginaw needs, by plant

• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0), vegetable garden (off by 0), tomatoes (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0).
• Sulfur: potatoes 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 4.6 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 7.02, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 509,696 surveyed acres in Saginaw, MI, 41% are alkaline (above 7.3), 35% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 23% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 2% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.7 to 8.2, a spread of 3.5 units across 416 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 15.5% clay and 3.63% 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. 19% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Saginaw against the rest of Michigan

pH 7.02 is 0.98 above the Michigan median of 6.04. 81 of 83 Michigan counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Sanilac (6.91), Wayne (6.93), Tuscola (6.95), Bay (6.96), Huron (7.03).

The range in Michigan runs from Baraga at 4.72 to Huron at 7.03; Saginaw sits 100% of the way up.