Soil pH in Yakutat City and Borough, AK: Lime or Sulfur?

Typical topsoil pH in Yakutat City and Borough, AK

Typical topsoil in Yakutat City and Borough, AK is pH 6.08, already right for vegetable garden (6-7). Test before adding anything.

What Yakutat City and Borough needs, by plant

• Already in range: lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, strawberries, roses, pink hydrangeas.
• Just outside, test first: tomatoes (off by 0.1), potatoes (off by 0.1), azaleas and rhododendrons (off by 0.1).
• Sulfur: blueberries 2.5 lb/100 sq ft over 2 applications; blue hydrangeas 1.8 lb/100 sq ft.

What to do next

If your test lands near 6.08, you can skip lime and sulfur for lawn (cool-season grass), vegetable garden, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, roses, azaleas and rhododendrons, pink hydrangeas.

How mixed the soil is

Of the 184,331 surveyed acres in Yakutat City and Borough, AK, 48% are moderately acidic (5.5-6.5), 31% are strongly acidic (below 5.5), 16% are alkaline (above 7.3), 5% are near neutral (6.5-7.3). Mapped soils run from pH 4.4 to 7.9, a spread of 3.5 units across 89 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 6.6% clay and 5.5% organic matter, which this site treats as loam. At 5.5% organic matter the soil buffers like a heavier one, which pushes it into the loam bracket. Moving it one pH unit takes about 7 lb of lime or 2.3 lb of sulfur per 100 sq ft. 13% of mapped components carry free carbonate (lime already in the ground).

Yakutat City and Borough against the rest of Alaska

pH 6.08 is 0.82 above the Alaska median of 5.26. 26 of 27 Alaska counties have more acidic topsoil. Nationally it is more alkaline than the US county median of 6.05.

Closest in pH within the state: Southeast Fairbanks Census Area (5.66), Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area (5.9), Denali Borough (5.94), Hoonah-Angoon Census Area (6.06).