Soil pH in Stevens, KS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Stevens, KS

Typical topsoil in Stevens, KS is pH 7.16, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Stevens needs, by plant

• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: tomatoes 1.6 lb/100 sq ft; potatoes 3.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 2.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 7.16, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 389,075 surveyed acres in Stevens, KS, 84% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 16% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 6.3 to 8.3, a spread of 2 units across 67 soil components. 84% 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 11.9% clay and 1.12% 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. 11% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Stevens against the rest of Kansas

pH 7.16 is 0.59 above the Kansas median of 6.57. 80 of 105 Kansas counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Meade (7.11), Thomas (7.13), Osborne (7.15), Lane (7.16), Comanche (7.19), Haskell (7.19), Trego (7.19), Russell (7.2).

The range in Kansas runs from Cherokee at 5.95 to Wallace at 7.51; Stevens sits 78% of the way up.