North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Richard Moyer" <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

Doreen,

Web Soil Survey certainly deserves promotion.  Please let me share a couple caveats.  WSS maps are helpful when trying to place raspberries in well-drained soil, or locating the heaviest soils that will still work for pears.  But beware that the developer of your land could have scraped off and sold the topsoil, and even spread the previous ridge of clay or shale across multiple yards when 'developing' your site.  Our previous site in the city had 2 feet of clay fill on top of (correctly mapped) rich loam. 

 

We used WSS maps extensively to help us find our new farm.  Our regional NRCS soil scientist was invaluable in interpreting the data of farms we were considering.  She talked us out of sites w/ wonderful views, but containing swampy and/or droughty soils.

 

Several NRCS folks have cautioned that the maps are only as good and the data gathered.  On long days gathering the initial data, there is the temptation to map one more piece of land without leaving the truck.   So good to optimize/field check the map of your particular site.  Particularly the boundaries between differing soils.

 

For instance, our soil map depicts our level trampoline on a 35% slope; this slope actually rises steeply just across the road.  From our map, I puzzled why the traditional vegetable gardens were located on poorer land than the pasture beside it.  Turns out on close inspection that there is a wider band of rich loam on our land than indicated by our WSS map.  Observant neighbors and those who grew up working our farm have helped us optimize the generalities of our soil map.

 

Richard Moyer

Castlewood, VA

Mulberry-peach salad last night