The Dirt on Dirt

What kind of soil do you have?  What is the dirty down on your dirt?  Outside of deep south Florida and the panhandle, most Florida gardeners will tell you they have sand.  Sugar sand is the common curse reference.

Actually, there are all sorts of types of soil in Florida.  Want to learn more about the soil in your part of Florida?  Check out the Florida Online Soil Survey.  The latest Seminole County Soil Survey is 1990.

This map of Seminole County shows the soil types and locations.  It is at the end of the soil survey.  Sand is yellow, everything other color is not sand.  So you can see that there is more to dirt in Florida than just sand.

Suppose you want to get really down and dirty and describe the soil in your garden?  Most counties have online property appraiser maps, including of course Seminole County Property Appraiser.  Once you find your counties property appraiser's record search, look for Map Search, Map It and/or Advanced Map Search.  There will be a choice for a Layers sub selection menu.  From the layers menu, you can chose various overlays for the map.  One of those layer selections is soil.

This is the soil overlay of my immediate area, taken from the above directions.

Now I can give my sand a name - Tavares-Millhopper Fine Sands.  Going back to the soil survey, I can read up a bit more on my soil:

"The Tavares series consists of soils that are moderately well drained.  These soils formed in sandy marine sediment.  They are on nearly level to sloping hillsides on the uplands.  The slopes range from 0 to 8 percent.  Tavares soils are hyperthermic, uncoated Typic Quartzipsamments.
.....
The reaction ranges from extremely acid to medium acid.  The texture is sand or fine sand to a depth of more than 80 inches.  The content of silt plus clay in the control section is 5 percent or less."

"Parent material is the unconsolidated mass from which a soil is formed.  It determines the limits of the chemical and mineralogical composition of the soil.  The soils in Seminole County formed in materials of late Miocene, Pleisocene, and Holocene geological ages.  Approximately 55 percent of the soils in the county formed in deep to moderately deep sands underlain by clays of the Orlando Ridge, Osceda Plain and Geneva Hill physiographic regions."

"Time is an important factor in the formation of soils.  Generally, a long time is required for formation of sail that have distinct horizons."

"In terms of geologic time, the soil material that makes up most of the soils in the county is young."

Of course, the reality is that I have urban soil defined by Bockheim (1974) as: "A soil material having a non-agricultural, man-made surface layer more than 50 cm thick, that has been produced by mixing, filling or by contamination of land surfaces in urban and suburban areas."

How is soil formed?  This soil interface diagram is a good reference.  To make this applicable to Florida fine sand, simply make percolation 150% larger than currently indicated.  In other words, drains so quickly that the good stuff also drains away quickly.  Leaving us with ..... wait for it .....  sand.

source:  Urban Soils by Phillip J. Craul, Professor of Soil Science

To answer the question, 'what kind of soil do you have'?  Sand.   'What kind of sand?'  Fine sand, sugar sand, Tavares-Millhopper series fine sand.  Fast draining and nutrient poor.  Very acidic.  Sand.

Want to grow something to eat in this sand?  mwaha-ha-ha-ha.

 Time to start growing your own good soil.  Yes, we grow soil first and plants second.  With constant additions of 'grown soil' to our garden beds, we can simulate the soil interface and produce better yields needing less inputs.