Soil pH in Venango, PA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Venango, PA

Typical topsoil in Venango, PA is pH 5.05, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 10.5 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Venango needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; vegetable garden 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; tomatoes 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 7 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; roses 10.5 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 8.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.05, spread about 105 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed in 3 doses, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 419,406 surveyed acres in Venango, PA, 65% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 35% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5). Mapped soils run from pH 4.1 to 6.8, a spread of 2.7 units across 240 soil components. 65% 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 17.1% clay and 3.15% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Venango against the rest of Pennsylvania

pH 5.05 is 0.26 below the Pennsylvania median of 5.31. 11 of 67 Pennsylvania counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Pike (4.99), Carbon (5), Cameron (5.01), Potter (5.04), Cambria (5.06), Somerset (5.06), Clarion (5.07), Centre (5.09).

The range in Pennsylvania runs from Forest at 4.57 to Greene at 6.07; Venango sits 32% of the way up.