Soil pH in Wayne, PA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Wayne, PA

Typical topsoil in Wayne, PA is pH 5.44, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 12.7 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Wayne needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: strawberries (off by 0.1).
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; vegetable garden 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; tomatoes 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; roses 12.7 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 9.2 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.44, spread about 127 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 453,722 surveyed acres in Wayne, PA, 68% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 30% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 3% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.3 to 6.6, a spread of 2.3 units across 251 soil components. 68% 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 16.3% clay and 8.48% organic matter, which this site treats as clay. At 8.48% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the clay bracket. 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.

Wayne against the rest of Pennsylvania

pH 5.44 is 0.13 above the Pennsylvania median of 5.31. 40 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: Bedford (5.38), Sullivan (5.39), Luzerne (5.4), Westmoreland (5.43), Beaver (5.46), Dauphin (5.47), Philadelphia (5.47), Lackawanna (5.5).

The range in Pennsylvania runs from Forest at 4.57 to Greene at 6.07; Wayne sits 58% of the way up.