Soil pH in Saline, AR: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Saline, AR

Typical topsoil in Saline, AR is pH 5.13, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 9.8 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Saline needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 6.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 9.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.13, spread about 98 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 408,502 surveyed acres in Saline, AR, 95% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 5% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 6.5, a spread of 1.9 units across 53 soil components. 95% 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 16.8% clay and 1.34% 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.

Saline against the rest of Arkansas

pH 5.13 is 0.31 below the Arkansas median of 5.44. 3 of 75 Arkansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Madison (5.02), Grant (5.09), Union (5.09), Newton (5.13), Searcy (5.16), Dallas (5.19), Logan (5.2), Washington (5.21).

The range in Arkansas runs from Madison at 5.02 to Desha at 6.33; Saline sits 8% of the way up.