Soil pH in Somerset, ME: Lime or Sulfur?
Typical topsoil pH in Somerset, ME
Typical topsoil in Somerset, ME is pH 4.64, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 21.8 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.
What Somerset needs, by plant
- Already in range: blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
- Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 21.8 lb/100 sq ft over 5 applications; vegetable garden 21.8 lb/100 sq ft over 5 applications; tomatoes 21.8 lb/100 sq ft over 5 applications; potatoes 10.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 16.1 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; roses 21.8 lb/100 sq ft over 5 applications; blue hydrangeas 6.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 18.4 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications.
What to do next
If your test confirms pH near 4.64, spread about 218 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 5 doses, ideally in fall.
How mixed the soil is
Of the 2,461,737 surveyed acres in Somerset, ME, 87% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 11% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 2% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.7 to 7.9, a spread of 4.2 units across 1,167 soil components. 87% 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 11.3% clay and 7.04% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 7.04% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the clay bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.
Somerset against the rest of Maine
pH 4.64 is 0.24 below the Maine median of 4.88. 1 of 16 Maine counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.
Closest in pH within the state: Piscataquis (4.59), Oxford (4.68), Franklin (4.69), Waldo (4.72), Knox (4.78).
The range in Maine runs from Piscataquis at 4.59 to Cumberland at 5.01; Somerset sits 12% of the way up.