Soil pH in Washington, NE: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Washington, NE

Typical topsoil in Washington, NE is pH 6.72, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Washington needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Sulfur: potatoes 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blueberries 5.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 5.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.72, 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 248,413 surveyed acres in Washington, NE, 42% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 39% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 19% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.3 to 8.2, a spread of 2.9 units across 210 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 28.6% clay and 2.61% 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. 27% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Washington against the rest of Nebraska

pH 6.72 is right at the Nebraska median of 6.75. 43 of 93 Nebraska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Garfield (6.65), Webster (6.65), Hall (6.68), Franklin (6.72), Cuming (6.73), Gosper (6.75), Howard (6.75), Boone (6.79).

The range in Nebraska runs from Fillmore at 5.88 to Scotts Bluff at 7.58; Washington sits 49% of the way up.