Soilscapes

[veggiechicken]

Found an interesting site that tells you what your soil type is and how fertile it is.
Soilscapes soil types viewer - National Soil Resources Institute. Cranfield University

I searched with my postcode - which was easy to do.
I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours


Soilscape 8:
Slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage

and I have 4 Carrots

[Baldy]

Soilscape 6:
Freely draining slightly acid loamy soils

2 carrots
explains a lot - its not me !!

[lottie dolly]

down the lottie

Soilscape 20:
Loamy and clayey floodplain soils with naturally high groundwater 3 carrots

at home soilscape 8, 4 carrots

[hamamelis]

Hmm... I searched for my allotment site (the soil type at the house being 'tarmac'); the map was definitely right, but the description was 'Steep acid upland pastures dry heath and moor; bracken gorse and oak woodlands' and the soil was described as 'free draining acid loam'

2 carrots.

It's low lying, soggy, and the whole area is almost dead flat, though there are a few oak trees around. It's clay, and the pH of the unimproved area tested at 6.04, which is barely acid at all I'm studying a soil science module at the moment, and took a sample in to test on Thursday. I'm pretty confident on that.

Incidentally, the UK Soil Observatory says it's silty loam, so now I'm really confused
They don't do a carrot rating though.

[Paulie]

Found an interesting site that tells you what your soil type is and how fertile it is.
Soilscapes soil types viewer - National Soil Resources Institute. Cranfield University

I searched with my postcode - which was easy to do.
I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours


Soilscape 8:
Slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage

and I have 4 Carrots

What a coincidence:. This morning I found the same site while I was musing about a new strawberry bed that I'm planning....

Soilscape 17:
Slowly permeable seasonally wet acid loamy and clayey soils.

...but only two carrots for me.

[SelkirkAlex]

that explains why growing in scotland is so tough, we don't have soil

[Greenleaves]

Soilscape 3:*
Shallow lime-rich soils over chalk or limestone

Free draining and 3 carrots

[Penellype]

I am on the junction between jumbled up small areas of 3 soil types (which explains why you can find chunks of heavy wet clay and dry orange sand within a few yards of each other around here and houses within a mile or 2 have completely different soil types).

Soilscape 15 (my postcode and to my south and a short distance west):
Naturally wet very acid sandy and loamy soils
1 carrot, but...
Arable and horticulture some wet lowland heath
Where cropped, vulnerable to leaching of nitrate and pesticides to groundwater; cropped land is generally flat; vulnerable to wind erosion during dry weather
Highly productive, where not stony, and suitable for cereals, roots, potatoes and vegetables but droughty and dependent on irrigation; lime and fertilisers are rapidly leached. Winter harvesting of roots will damage weak soil structure and lead to compaction.
(Exactly the conditions I had in my previous house)

Soilscape 18 (to my north):
Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils
Impeded drainage
3 carrots
Grassland and arable some woodland
(What I can see out of my bedroom window, possibly best describes my garden)

Soilscape 22 (most of the village, to my east):
Loamy soils with naturally high groundwater
Naturally wet
2 carrots
Wet acid meadows and woodland
Most land is used for arable and root cropping but this is replaced by grass where soils are excessively stony or too wet. Although subject to groundwater inundation in the subsoil, these soils can be droughty in the summer

I would describe my garden as naturally heavy clay which is wet to the point of saturation after average rainfall and has been improved by years of adding compost. Acid is definitely right, but I can't make it fit with the description for my postcode. So I could have anywhere between 1 and 3 carrots, and this could explain why despite additions of compost at regular intervals, crops soon start to look undernourished and poor (particularly noticeable with tomatoes grown in the soil).

What I find amazing is that the excellent and fertile arable vale of York seems to have a max of 3 carrots throughout.

[Bren In Pots]

Soilscape 24:
Restored soils mostly from quarry and opencast spoil

Variable drainage, Loamy with 3 carrots

[Peteyd]

Soilscape 18, Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils

Impeded drainage, 3 Carrots.

How would I go about improving the soil structure? I mixed in loads of compost in the spring but I still have loads of huge lumps of rock hard soil. Can anyone help?

[Jungle Jane]

Soilscape 8
Slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage.
Loamy some clayey
Four carrots
Seems like a good area for carrots

[Penellype]

Soilscape 18, Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils

Impeded drainage, 3 Carrots.

How would I go about improving the soil structure? I mixed in loads of compost in the spring but I still have loads of huge lumps of rock hard soil. Can anyone help?

Repeated additions of large amounts of manure or compost. Break up large hard lumps if you can, remove rocks/large stones. Raised beds may be a good option if drainage is poor.

[Chippy Minton]

Home:
Soilscape 18:
Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils - 3 carrots

Plot:
Soilscape 14:
Freely draining very acid sandy and loamy soils - a single carrot!

No mention of the trillion carrot flies.....

[Small pumpkin]

Very disappointing. I was looking forward to seeing what they classed raised beach as.

[Snadger]

Very disappointing. I was looking forward to seeing what they classed raised beach as.

Saline , free draining!