Soil pH in Teton, WY: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Teton, WY

Typical topsoil in Teton, WY is pH 6.19, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Teton needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0), potatoes (off by 0.2), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.8 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 2.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.19, 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 1,908,000 surveyed acres in Teton, WY, 47% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 23% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 18% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 12% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.6 to 8.2, a spread of 3.6 units across 622 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 19.1% clay and 2.4% 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. 10% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Teton against the rest of Wyoming

pH 6.19 is 1.31 below the Wyoming median of 7.5. 0 of 23 Wyoming counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Lincoln (6.56), Sublette (6.97), Crook (7.06), Sheridan (7.25).