Soil pH in San Patricio, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in San Patricio, TX

Typical topsoil in San Patricio, TX is pH 7.44 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 Patricio 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 7.44, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 69% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 401,699 surveyed acres in San Patricio, TX, 60% are alkaline (above 7.3), 22% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 18% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.9 to 8.5, a spread of 2.6 units across 44 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 36.4% clay and 1.68% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 69% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

San Patricio against the rest of Texas

pH 7.44 is right at the Texas median of 7.43. 128 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Collingsworth (7.42), Karnes (7.43), Motley (7.43), Jeff Davis (7.44), Winkler (7.45), Kent (7.46), Fisher (7.47), Lubbock (7.47).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; San Patricio sits 79% of the way up.