Soil pH in Spencer, IN: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Spencer, IN

Typical topsoil in Spencer, IN is pH 5.97, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Spencer needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0), vegetable garden (off by 0), tomatoes (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0), pink hydrangeas (off by 0).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.97, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 246,824 surveyed acres in Spencer, IN, 70% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 17% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 12% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 1% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 7.5, a spread of 2.9 units across 135 soil components. 70% 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 18.3% clay and 2.03% 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. 0% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Spencer against the rest of Indiana

pH 5.97 is 0.38 below the Indiana median of 6.35. 18 of 92 Indiana counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Harrison (5.91), Jennings (5.92), Ripley (5.93), Pike (5.97), Jefferson (6.04), Starke (6.08), Clay (6.13), Decatur (6.17).

The range in Indiana runs from Brown at 4.97 to Hamilton at 6.74; Spencer sits 56% of the way up.