Soil pH in Summit, UT: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Summit, UT

Typical topsoil in Summit, UT is pH 6.95, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Summit needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: potatoes 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 4.6 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.9 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 1.6 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.95, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 641,861 surveyed acres in Summit, UT, 76% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 18% are alkaline (above 7.3), 7% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 8.5, a spread of 2.7 units across 413 soil components. 76% 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 21.5% clay and 4.11% 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. 20% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Summit against the rest of Utah

pH 6.95 is 1 below the Utah median of 7.95. 2 of 29 Utah counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Morgan (6.66), Wasatch (6.77), Weber (7.09), Cache (7.13), Salt Lake (7.57), Davis (7.61).

The range in Utah runs from Morgan at 6.66 to Millard at 8.44; Summit sits 16% of the way up.