Soil pH in Spartanburg, SC: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Spartanburg, SC

Typical topsoil in Spartanburg, SC is pH 5.44, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 7.7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Spartanburg needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.1).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 7.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.6 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.44, spread about 77 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 2 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 483,120 surveyed acres in Spartanburg, SC, 67% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 28% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 5% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.8 to 6.8, a spread of 2 units across 104 soil components. 67% 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 14.8% clay and 0.62% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Spartanburg against the rest of South Carolina

pH 5.44 is 0.14 above the South Carolina median of 5.3. 30 of 46 South Carolina counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Oconee (5.38), Greenville (5.4), Cherokee (5.44), Lexington (5.44), Pickens (5.45), Richland (5.45), Edgefield (5.47), McCormick (5.5).

The range in South Carolina runs from Charleston at 4.8 to Beaufort at 5.92; Spartanburg sits 57% of the way up.