LOCATION HEITT KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Heitt silt loam - cultivated.
(Colors are for moist conditions.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many roots; medium acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 8 inches thick)
Bt1--6 to 16 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) silty clay; moderate and strong medium angular blocky structure; firm; many roots; common clay films; few black concretions; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bt2--16 to 26 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) clay; many fine distinct yellowish red (5YR 5/6) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) mottles; moderate and strong medium angular blocky structure; very firm; sticky, plastic; common roots; common clay films; few black concretions; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bt horizon is 13 to 35 inches.)
C--26 to 43 inches; light olive brown (2.5YR 5/4) clay; common medium distinct light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) and grayish brown (10YR 5/2) mottles; massive; very firm, very sticky, very plastic; few roots; few black concretions; 10 percent fragments of siltstone, shale, and limestone; neutral; gradual wavy boundary. (10 to 30 inches thick)
Cr--43 to 60 inches; gray (5Y 6/1) clayey shale; many medium distinct light olive brown (2.5Y 5/6) mottles; relict platy structure; very firm; sticky, plastic; 40 percent siltstone, shale, and limestone fragments; calcareous.
TYPE LOCATION: Harrison County, Kentucky; 1/2 mile east of South Fork Twin Creek along State Highway 356, in fork of road, about 5 miles west of Cynthiana, Kentucky.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The solum thickness ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Depth to rock ranges from 40 to more than 72 inches. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to medium acid, in the solum and slightly acid to moderately alkaline in the substratum. Coarse fragments in the substratum range from 0 to 35 percent in the upper part and 25 to 75 percent in the lower part.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture is silt loam or silty clay loam.
When present, the AB or BA horizon, has hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 through 6. Texture is silty clay loam or silty clay. It is 0 to 10 inches thick.
The Bt horizon has hue of 5YR, 7.5YR, 10YR and 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 through 8, with mottles in shades of red, brown and yellow. Some pedons have gray mottles below the upper 20 inches of the argillic horizon. Texture is silty clay or clay.
When present, the BC or CB horizon has color and texture similar to the lower Bt horizon or C horizon.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR, 2.5Y, or 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 1 through 6. Texture is silty clay or clay.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Beasley, Bland, Bledsoe, Bonnell, Brashear, Bratton, Briggsville, Brookside, Bucklick, Caneyville, Chrome, Derinda, Donahue, Eden, Edenton, Elba, Eldean, Estate, Faywood, Fredonia, Gunlock, Hagerstown, Kewaunee, Lamoille, Losantville, Lowell, Markland, Medary, Miamian, Milton, Newnata, Ozaukee, Shrouts, Upsher, Vandalia, Vincent, Woodsfield, and Wynn series of the same family. Beasley, Brashear, Brookside, Lowell, Markland, and Woodsfield soils lack B horizons with colors as red as 5YR hue. Bland, Bratton, Caneyville, Chrome, Derinda, Donahue, Eden, Edenton, Faywood, Fredonia, Milton, Shrouts, and Wynn are less than 40 inches to a paralithic or lithic contact. Briggsville soils have stratified silty clay loam C horizons at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Bucklick soils have warmer temperatures and less rainfall in July and August and higher Thornthwaite P-E indices. Elba and Medary soils lack carbonates within depths of 10 to 30 inches. Eldean, Miamian, Losantville, and Ozaukee soils formed in glacial material and have angular or rounded rock fragments of mixed lithology. Bledsoe, Gunlock, Hagerstown, and Newnata have thicker sola. Lamoille soils contain rounded cobbles, gravel and some chert in the lower part of the solum and substratum. Markland soils formed in lacustrine sediments and lack coarse fragments. Kewaunee, Upshur and Vincent soils have lower B and C horizons in hue of 5YR or redder. Vandalia soils have sola with 10 to 40 percent coarse fragments.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Heitt soils are on ridgetops in the uplands. Slopes range from 3 to 12 percent. These soils formed in residuum of interbedded calcareous siltstones and shales and thin limestone. The mean annual temperature ranges from 53 to 56 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 44 to 48 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Eden and Lowell series and the Nicholson series. Nicholson soils have fragipans.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained with medium runoff and moderately slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are now used for burley tobacco, corn, small grains, and hay or pasture. Native vegetation consists of oaks, hickory, maple, elm, hackberry, black walnut, honey, and black locust; in places, red cedar.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Hills of the Bluegrass in Kentucky and southwestern Ohio. Extent is moderate.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Brown County, Ohio; 1930.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons recognized in this pedon are:
Ochric epipedon - 0 to 6 inches (Ap).
Argillic horizon - 6 to 26 inches (Bt1, Bt2).
Paralithic contact of 43 inches.