Soil pH in San Miguel, NM: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in San Miguel, NM

Typical topsoil in San Miguel, NM is pH 7.63 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What San Miguel needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 7.63, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 34% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 2,181,600 surveyed acres in San Miguel, NM, 78% are alkaline (above 7.3), 20% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 1% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 8.5, a spread of 2.7 units across 278 soil components. 78% 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 18% clay and 1.33% 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. 34% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

San Miguel against the rest of New Mexico

pH 7.63 is right at the New Mexico median of 7.65. 15 of 33 New Mexico counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Santa Fe (7.55), Union (7.57), Eddy (7.61), Harding (7.61), McKinley (7.65), Quay (7.66), Sandoval (7.7), Hidalgo (7.71).

The range in New Mexico runs from Colfax at 6.99 to Valencia at 8.07; San Miguel sits 59% of the way up.