Soil pH in Sunflower, MS: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Sunflower, MS

Typical topsoil in Sunflower, MS is pH 5.75, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 9.2 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Sunflower needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; vegetable garden 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; tomatoes 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 5.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.7 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.75, spread about 92 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 415,161 surveyed acres in Sunflower, MS, 59% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 33% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 8% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 7, a spread of 2 units across 106 soil components. No single class covers 60% of the county, so two gardens a few miles apart here can need opposite treatments. Test your own bed.

Clay, organic matter and rates

Topsoil here averages 37.1% clay and 1.57% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Sunflower against the rest of Mississippi

pH 5.75 is 0.6 above the Mississippi median of 5.15. 72 of 82 Mississippi counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Quitman (5.67), Adams (5.68), Lowndes (5.74), Noxubee (5.74), Clay (5.76), Yazoo (5.79), Warren (5.92), Tunica (5.95).

The range in Mississippi runs from Hancock at 4.85 to Issaquena at 6.73; Sunflower sits 48% of the way up.