Soil pH in Van Wert, OH: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Van Wert, OH

Typical topsoil in Van Wert, OH is pH 6.5, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Van Wert needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 3.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 4.4 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.5, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 260,525 surveyed acres in Van Wert, OH, 60% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 40% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.9 to 7.5, a spread of 1.6 units across 137 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 32% clay and 3.72% 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.

Van Wert against the rest of Ohio

pH 6.5 is 0.42 above the Ohio median of 6.08. 83 of 88 Ohio counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Lucas (6.48), Fulton (6.49), Henry (6.5), Paulding (6.5), Sandusky (6.52), Wood (6.6).

The range in Ohio runs from Monroe at 5.02 to Wood at 6.6; Van Wert sits 94% of the way up.