Soil pH in Sterling, TX: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Sterling, TX

Typical topsoil in Sterling, TX is pH 8.09 and calcareous, so sulfur won't lower it for long. For vegetable garden, choose alkaline-tolerant varieties and add compost rather than fighting the soil.

What Sterling needs, by plant

• Beds or pots instead: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas, pink hydrangeas.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 8.09, consider raised beds for anything acid-loving; with 100% of soils here carrying free lime, sulfur will not hold.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 511,444 surveyed acres in Sterling, TX, 100% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.7 to 8.2, a spread of 1.5 units across 33 soil components. 100% 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 32% clay and 4.21% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. Moving it one pH unit takes about 11.5 lb of lime or 3.4 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 100% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground), enough that sulfur gets neutralised before it does much.

Sterling against the rest of Texas

pH 8.09 is 0.66 above the Texas median of 7.43. 246 of 254 Texas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Tom Green (8.07), Cameron (8.08), Irion (8.09), Pecos (8.09), Terrell (8.09), Glasscock (8.1), Concho (8.11), Reagan (8.17).

The range in Texas runs from Hardin at 4.64 to Upton at 8.19; Sterling sits 97% of the way up.