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

Typical topsoil pH in San Saba, TX

Typical topsoil in San Saba, TX is pH 7.18, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What San Saba needs, by plant

• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2).
• Beds or pots instead: tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test lands near 7.18, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 655,732 surveyed acres in San Saba, TX, 72% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 28% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.2 to 8.2, a spread of 2 units across 65 soil components. 72% 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 30.1% clay and 2.21% 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. 57% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

San Saba against the rest of Texas

pH 7.18 is 0.25 below the Texas median of 7.43. 92 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: DeWitt (7.1), Washington (7.1), Fannin (7.12), Gaines (7.18), Guadalupe (7.19), Kleberg (7.19), Jim Wells (7.21), Parker (7.21).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; San Saba sits 72% of the way up.