Soil pH in Sandusky, OH: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Sandusky, OH

Typical topsoil in Sandusky, OH is pH 6.52, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Sandusky needs, by plant

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

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.52, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 240,058 surveyed acres in Sandusky, OH, 63% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 34% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 3% are alkaline (above 7.3), 1% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.3 to 8, a spread of 2.7 units across 63 soil components. 63% 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 25.6% clay and 3.73% 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. 5% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Sandusky against the rest of Ohio

pH 6.52 is 0.44 above the Ohio median of 6.08. 86 of 88 Ohio counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Fulton (6.49), Henry (6.5), Paulding (6.5), Van Wert (6.5), Wood (6.6).

The range in Ohio runs from Monroe at 5.02 to Wood at 6.6; Sandusky sits 95% of the way up.