Soil pH in West Baton Rouge, LA: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in West Baton Rouge, LA

Typical topsoil in West Baton Rouge, LA is pH 6.9, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What West Baton Rouge needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, roses.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: potatoes 4.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; strawberries 3.1 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blueberries 6.5 lb/100 sq ft over 4 applications; azaleas and rhododendrons 5.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; blue hydrangeas 5.8 lb/100 sq ft over 3 applications; pink hydrangeas 2.4 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.9, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, roses.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 112,707 surveyed acres in West Baton Rouge, LA, 94% are near neutral (6.5-7.3), 5% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 1% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 5.3 to 7.3, a spread of 2 units across 29 soil components. 94% 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 51.3% clay and 1.89% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

West Baton Rouge against the rest of Louisiana

pH 6.9 is 1.36 above the Louisiana median of 5.54. 62 of 64 Louisiana counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Plaquemines (6.71), St. James (6.76), St. John the Baptist (6.78), Pointe Coupee (6.84), St. Bernard (7).

The range in Louisiana runs from Allen at 4.88 to St. Bernard at 7; West Baton Rouge sits 95% of the way up.