Soil pH in Sarasota, FL: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Sarasota, FL

Typical topsoil in Sarasota, FL is pH 5.82, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Sarasota needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Lime: tomatoes 2.1 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 1 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 0.7 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.82, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 152,546 surveyed acres in Sarasota, FL, 49% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 44% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 4% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.2 to 8, a spread of 3.8 units across 95 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 1.6% clay and 2.57% organic matter, which this site treats as sandy. Moving it one pH unit takes about 3 lb of lime or 1.2 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 0% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Sarasota against the rest of Florida

pH 5.82 is 0.57 above the Florida median of 5.25. 60 of 67 Florida counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Palm Beach (5.8), St. Lucie (5.81), Hendry (5.82), Pinellas (5.82), Brevard (6.04), Broward (6.25), Miami-Dade (6.91), Monroe (7.81).

The range in Florida runs from Franklin at 4.5 to Monroe at 7.81; Sarasota sits 40% of the way up.