Soil pH in Waukesha, WI: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Waukesha, WI

Typical topsoil in Waukesha, WI is pH 6.79, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Waukesha needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.
• Sulfur: potatoes 3 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; strawberries 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blueberries 4.1 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 3.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; pink hydrangeas 1.2 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.79, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 304,503 surveyed acres in Waukesha, WI, 84% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 14% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 2% are alkaline (above 7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 5.8 to 7.9, a spread of 2.1 units across 224 soil components. 84% 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 16.8% clay and 2.7% 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. 5% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Waukesha against the rest of Wisconsin

pH 6.79 is 0.71 above the Wisconsin median of 6.08. 62 of 72 Wisconsin counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Brown (6.74), Fond du Lac (6.76), Kewaunee (6.76), Manitowoc (6.79), Dodge (6.8), Ozaukee (6.8), Sheboygan (6.8), Winnebago (6.8).

The range in Wisconsin runs from Iron at 5.16 to Washington at 6.88; Waukesha sits 95% of the way up.