Soil pH in Wicomico, MD: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Wicomico, MD

Typical topsoil in Wicomico, MD is pH 5.5, too acidic for vegetable garden. Expect roughly 3 lb of lime per 100 sq ft, but only after a soil test confirms it.

What Wicomico needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, blueberries, azaleas and rhododendrons, blue hydrangeas.
• Lime: lawn (cool-season grass) 3 lb/100 sq ft; vegetable garden 3 lb/100 sq ft; tomatoes 3 lb/100 sq ft; roses 3 lb/100 sq ft; pink hydrangeas 2.4 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test confirms pH near 5.5, spread about 30 lb of ground limestone per 1,000 sq ft of vegetable bed, ideally in fall.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 208,603 surveyed acres in Wicomico, MD, 60% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 40% are strongly acidic (below 5.5). Mapped soils run from pH 3.4 to 6.7, a spread of 3.3 units across 217 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 8.1% clay and 3.77% 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. None of the mapped components carry free carbonate.

Wicomico against the rest of Maryland

pH 5.5 is right at the Maryland median of 5.49. 12 of 24 Maryland counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more acidic than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Harford (5.33), Somerset (5.35), Montgomery (5.47), Cecil (5.48), Kent (5.53), Dorchester (5.6), Howard (5.62), Baltimore (5.63).

The range in Maryland runs from Charles at 4.47 to Washington at 6.01; Wicomico sits 67% of the way up.