Soilscapes

[veggiechicken]

Maybe its on Hamamelis's link to United Kingdom Soil Observatory
Lots of Scotland info there

[Hereford fruit grower]

Mine's a 'freely-draining slightly acid loamy soil', as you might have gathered from my other posts.

So it's a loam. But for horticulture that doesn't seem detailed enough. Soilscapes doesn't distinguish between the sort of sandy loams which are more 'well-drained' than 'moisture-retentive' and my silt loam. My soil tends towards the opposite, i.e. it stores a huge amount of water and doesn't dry out quickly.

If you're growing a crop like asparagus, or cherries on Gisela 5 rootstock, my soil isn't really good enough. You might remember a Gardener's World programme when Monty Don commented that his asparagus plants had died from the winter wet.

Soilscapes gives the same description to my soil and to the soil at Ross-on-Wye. That is a very sandy loam and some farmers grow asparagus for a living.

[bikermike]

type 18 and three carrots here...