Soil pH in Wadena, MN: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Wadena, MN

Typical topsoil in Wadena, MN is pH 6.35, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Wadena needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Sulfur: potatoes 1 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 1.6 lb/100 sq ft; azaleas and rhododendrons 1.3 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 1.3 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.35, 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 299,152 surveyed acres in Wadena, MN, 56% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 41% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5 to 8.2, a spread of 3.2 units across 143 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 7.8% clay and 3.39% organic matter, which this site treats as sandy. Moving it one pH unit takes about 3 lb of lime or 1.2 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 12% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Wadena against the rest of Minnesota

pH 6.35 is 0.29 below the Minnesota median of 6.64. 22 of 87 Minnesota counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Hubbard (6.13), Koochiching (6.16), Ramsey (6.16), Todd (6.34), Fillmore (6.39), Dakota (6.4), Dodge (6.42), Wabasha (6.42).

The range in Minnesota runs from Cook at 5.21 to Swift at 7.49; Wadena sits 50% of the way up.