LOCATION MANCHESTER CTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed, mesic Typic Udorthents
TYPICAL PEDON: Manchester gravelly sandy loam - cultivated, 1 percent slope at an elevation of about 199 feet. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 9 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 3/2) gravelly sandy loam; weak medium granular structure; very friable; many fine and common medium roots; 20 percent gravel; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
Bw--9 to 18 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/3) gravelly loamy sand; very weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; few fine roots; 25 percent gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (4 to 20 inches thick)
C--18 to 65 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) very gravelly sand; single grain; loose; 50 percent gravel; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Middlesex County, Connecticut; Wangunk State Wildlife Area, town of Portland, 2300 feet west-southwest of the intersection of Isinglass Hill Road and Connecticut Route 17, 2200 feet south of the Middlesex-Hartford County line. USGS Glastonbury topographic quadrangle, latitude 41 degrees 37 minutes 44 seconds N., longitude 72 degrees 36 minutes 48 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 12 to 24 inches. Rock fragments, mainly rounded pebbles, range from 15 to 50 percent in the solum and from 35 to 70 percent in the substratum. The weighted average volume of rock fragments from 10 to 40 inches is more than 35 percent. Unless limed, the soil very strongly acid to moderately acid.
The Ap horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 3 or 4 and chroma of 2 to 4. Undisturbed pedons have a thin A horizon with value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 to
3. The Ap or A horizon is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loamy fine sand or loamy sand in the fine earth fraction. It has weak granular structure and is friable or very friable.
The Bw horizon has hue of 5YR or 2.5YR, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 3 to 8.
Texture in the fine-earth fraction is loamy sand, loamy fine sand or sandy loam in the upper part of the horizon and loamy fine sand, loamy sand or sand in the lower part of the horizon. Sandy loam texture does not extend below a depth of 10 inches. The Bw horizon has weak granular structure or it is single grain. Consistence is very friable or loose.
The C horizon has hue of 5YR or 2.5YR, value and chroma of 3 to 6. The horizon is commonly stratified sand and gravel. Fine earth texture in individual layers is coarse sand, sand or loamy sand.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the
Bonaparte,
Hinckley,
Mecosta,
Multorpor,
Otisville,
Quonset, and
Rikers series. Mecosta and Multorpor soils are from
outside LRRs R and S.
Bonaparte and
Mecosta soils are calcareous within a depth of 40 inches.
Hinckley and
Quonset soils have hue of 7.5YR or yellower throughout and have major differences in lithology.
Multorpor soils have hue of 7.5YR or yellower throughout and receive 60 inches or more of precipitation annually.
Otisville soils have hue of 7.5YR or yellower in the substratum and formed in materials derived from acid siliceous rocks.
Rikers (Tentative) soils have carboliths and
coal.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Manchester soils are nearly level to steep soils on terraces, outwash plains, kames, deltas and eskers. Slope ranges from 0 to 45 percent. The soils formed in sandy and gravelly glaciofluvial materials and stratified drift derived mainly from a red sedimentary rocks and basalt. Mean annual temperature is 45 to 52 degrees F., mean annual precipitation is 38 to 50 inches and the growing season is 140 to 185 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the
Bash,
Berlin,
Cheshire,
Ellington,
Hartford,
Holyoke,
Ludlow,
Menlo,
Penwood,
Raypol,
Raynham,
Walpole,
Watchaug,
Wethersfield,
Wilbraham and
Yalesville soils on nearby landscapes.
Bash soils are somewhat poorly drained soils on flood plains. Berlin soils are fine-textured soils on glaciolacustrine terraces. Cheshire, Holyoke, Ludlow, Menlo, Watchaug, Wethersfield, Wilbraham and Yalesville soils are on nearby till uplands. Ellington soils are moderately well drained terrace associates.
Hartford soils have a sandy-skeletal particle size control section. Penwood
soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments throughout. Raypol, Raynham and Walpole soils are poorly drained soils in low areas.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained. Surface runoff is negligible to high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is high in the surface layer, and high or very high in the subsoil and substratum. The soils are droughty.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are forested or in brushy vegetation. Cleared areas are used for hay, pasture and silage corn. Small areas, mostly irrigated, are used for tobacco, vegetables and nursery stock. Many areas are in community development. Common trees are white, red and black oak, gray birch, aspen, white pine and pitch pine. Gravel is commonly excavated from areas of these soils.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciofluvial landforms in the Connecticut River Valley of Connecticut; MLRA 145. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Connecticut Valley Area 1903.
REMARKS: This revision reflects general updating. The horizons and features diagnostic for the typical pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon from 0 to 9 inches.
2. Sandy-skeletal particle-size control section from 10 to 40 inches.
3. Mesic temperature and udic moisture regimes.
4. Mixed mineralogy.
5. No diagnostic subsoil horizons - the zone from 9 to 18 inches does not meet the criteria for a cambic horizon (Bw horizon).