Soil pH in Van Buren, IA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Van Buren, IA

Typical topsoil in Van Buren, IA is pH 6.02, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Van Buren needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.2), potatoes (off by 0), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0).
• 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 6.02, 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 305,183 surveyed acres in Van Buren, IA, 74% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 21% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 6% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.1 to 7.9, a spread of 2.8 units across 304 soil components. 74% 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 25.1% clay and 2.45% 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. 0% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Van Buren against the rest of Iowa

pH 6.02 is 0.34 below the Iowa median of 6.36. 0 of 99 Iowa counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Ida (6.07), Audubon (6.09), Shelby (6.11), Lee (6.12).