Soil pH in Worcester, MD: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Worcester, MD

Typical topsoil in Worcester, MD is pH 5.84, just outside the 6-7 range for vegetable garden. Test first; it may need nothing.

What Worcester needs, by plant

• Already in range: potatoes, strawberries, azaleas and rhododendrons.
• Just outside, test first: lawn (cool-season grass) (off by 0.2), vegetable garden (off by 0.2), roses (off by 0.2), pink hydrangeas (off by 0.2).
• Lime: tomatoes 4.9 lb/100 sq ft.
• Sulfur: blueberries 1.8 lb/100 sq ft; blue hydrangeas 1.4 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 5.84, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 338,067 surveyed acres in Worcester, MD, 48% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 33% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 11% are alkaline (above 7.3), 8% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4 to 7.9, a spread of 3.9 units across 354 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 11% clay and 4.28% 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. 15% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Worcester against the rest of Maryland

pH 5.84 is 0.35 above the Maryland median of 5.49. 22 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: Frederick (5.67), Talbot (5.73), Caroline (5.76), Queen Anne's (5.79), Washington (6.01).

The range in Maryland runs from Charles at 4.47 to Washington at 6.01; Worcester sits 89% of the way up.