North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Mark Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

Eddie,

 

Thanks for the link on soil maps.  I didn't know that was out there.  The map seem to nail everything about our soil and water table, with the exception of frost free days.  I'd always seen figures of around 185.  The map shows a range of 185-255 FF days.  Not sure who to believe.

 

Mark

KS 

----- Original Message -----

From: Eddie Earles

To: North American Fruit Explorers

Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 7:35 AM

Subject: Re: [NAFEX] agronomy question

I'd agree with Jon's assessment.  A pH of 7.6 suggests that there are some carbonates in the soil, and members of the genus Vaccinia (blueberries, cranberries, etc) are highly intolerant of carbonates.  Blueberries prefer a pH of between 4.3 and 5.0.  If the soil is well drained, asparagus might be a good choice...it likes pH values above 7 (although you'd still probably have to add some Calcium as lime).

 

Alan, do you have a soil survey of the area?  If not, you can go to the Web Soil Survey ( http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/HomePage.htm ), search by address, and find a soil map of the area.  That might help you out.  Contact me if you have trouble navigating the site (it helps to have someone lead you through it the first time, as producing a soil map using their apps isn't intuitive for everyone).

 

Eddie Earles