Soil pH in Trempealeau, WI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Trempealeau, WI

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

What Trempealeau needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6, 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 462,304 surveyed acres in Trempealeau, WI, 63% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 20% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 17% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 3.9 to 7.5, a spread of 3.6 units across 484 soil components. 63% 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 13.2% clay and 2.43% 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. 1% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Trempealeau against the rest of Wisconsin

pH 6 is 0.08 below the Wisconsin median of 6.08. 31 of 72 Wisconsin counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Chippewa (5.82), Monroe (5.84), Barron (5.9), Shawano (5.98), Dunn (6.06), Oconto (6.06), St. Croix (6.06), Buffalo (6.08).

The range in Wisconsin runs from Iron at 5.16 to Washington at 6.88; Trempealeau sits 49% of the way up.