LOCATION TIFTON                  GA AL FL

Established Series
Rev. GRB-APT-AMS
09/2017

TIFTON SERIES


The Tifton series consists of very deep, well drained soils that formed in loamy marine sediments. Tifton soils are on interfluves. Slopes range from 0 to 8 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 18 degrees C (64 degrees F), and the mean annual precipitation is about 1360 millimeters (53 inches).

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Plinthic Kandiudults

TYPICAL PEDON: Tifton loamy sand, on a 3 percent convex slope in a pasture. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted).

Apc--0 to 27 centimeters (0 to 11 inches); dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) loamy sand; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common fine roots; about 9 percent, by volume, ironstone nodules less than 0.75 inch in diameter; moderately acid; clear smooth boundary. [5 to 30 centimeters thick (5 to 12 inches)].

Btc1--27 to 55 centimeters (11 to 22 inches); strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) fine sandy loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; common fine roots; few fine pores; sand grains bridged with clay; about 11 percent, by volume, ironstone nodules less than 0.75 inch in diameter; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.

Btc2--55 to 101 centimeters (22 to 40 inches); yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) sandy clay loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few fine continuous pores; few faint clay films on faces of peds; about 10 percent, by volume, ironstone nodules less than 0.75 inch in diameter; moderately acid; gradual wavy boundary. [Combined thickness of the Btc horizon ranges from 35 to 86 centimeters (14 to 34 inches)].

Btv1--101 to 127 centimeters (40 to 50 inches); yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) sandy clay loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; few medium continuous pores; 5 percent nodular plinthite; common distinct clay films on faces of peds; 4 percent ironstone nodules by volume less than 0.75 inches in diameter; common medium prominent yellowish red (5YR 5/6) and common fine prominent red (2.5YR 4/8) masses of oxidized iron; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.

Btv2--127 to 152 centimeters (50 to 60 inches); yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) paragravelly sandy clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; 15 percent nodular plinthite; few distinct clay films on faces of peds; 2 percent ironstone nodules; common medium prominent red (2.5YR 4/6) and common medium distinct brownish yellow (10YR 6/6) masses of oxidized iron and common medium prominent light gray (10YR 7/2) iron depletions; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. [Combined thickness of the Btv horizon is 50 to 101 centimeters (20 to 40 inches)].

BCt--152 to 165 centimeters (60 to 65 inches); strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) sandy clay; weak coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; few coarse pores; 2 percent ironstone nodules; common medium prominent red (2.5YR 4/6) masses of oxidized iron and light gray (10YR 7/2) iron depletions; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.

C--165 to 203 centimeters (65 to 80 inches); strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) sandy clay loam; massive; firm; 2 percent plinthite; 2 percent ironstone nodules; many medium prominent red (2.5YR 4/6) masses of oxidized iron and common medium prominent white (10YR 8/1) iron depletions; very strongly acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Tift County, Georgia. The Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Carpenter Farm. About 0.96 kilometers north (0.6 miles) of Abraham Baldwin College to Zion Hope Church Road, about 1.28 kilometers west (0.8 miles) on paved road, about 0.64 kilometers north (0.4 miles) on unpaved road and about 100 feet west of road. Tifton West, GA. USGS Quadrangle. Latitude 31 degrees, 29 minutes, 59 seconds North; Longitude 83 degrees, 32 minutes, 36 seconds West; Datum WGS84.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS:

Plinthite: Depth to horizons with 5 percent or more plinthite is dominantly 76 to 127 centimeters (30 to 50 inches), but in some pedons it is 63 centimeters (25 inches).
Silt content is less than 20 percent.
Depth to Redox features: Predominantly greater than 102 centimeters (40 inches), but some pedons have iron depletions below a depth of 76 centimeters (30 inches).

Ac or Apc horizons:
Hue: 10YR or 2.5Y
Value: 3 to 5
Chroma: 1 to 4
Texture: sand, fine sand, loamy fine sand, loamy sand, loamy coarse sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or their gravelly analogues
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 5 to 25 percent, by volume
Reaction: very strongly acid to strongly acid, except where the surface has been limed

Ec horizon, where present:
Hue: 10YR or 2.5Y
Value: 5 or 6
Chroma: 4 to 6
Texture: sand, fine sand, loamy fine sand, loamy sand, loamy coarse sand, sandy loam, fine sandy loam, or their gravelly analogues
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 5 to 25 percent, by volume
Reaction: very strongly acid to strongly acid

BEc horizon, where present:
Hue: 10YR or 7.5YR
Value: 5 or 6
Chroma: 4 to 8
Texture: sandy loam or gravelly sandy loam
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 5 to 25 percent, by volume
Reaction: very strongly acid to strongly acid

Btc horizon:
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 5 or 6
Chroma: 4 to 8
Texture: Texture is fine sandy loam, sandy loam, sandy clay loam or their gravelly analogues. Some pedons range up to sandy clay or their gravelly analogues in the lower part.
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 5 to 30 percent, by volume. Content of nodular plinthite ranges from 0 to 4 percent in the lower part of the horizon.
Reaction: very strongly acid to strongly acid

Btv horizon (upper part):
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 5 or 6
Chroma: 4 to 8
Texture: Texture is dominantly sandy clay loam but can range up to sandy clay or their gravelly analogues.
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 0 to 15 percent, by volume. Nodular plinthite ranges from 5 to 30 percent.
Reaction: very strongly acid to strongly acid
Redox features: Masses of oxidized iron in shades of red and brown range from few to many. Some pedons have iron depletions below a depth of 76 centimeters (30 inches).

Btv horizon (lower part):
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 5 or 6
Chroma: 5 to 8
Texture: Texture is the same range as the upper part of the horizon
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 0 to 15 percent, by volume. Nodular and platy plinthite ranges from 5 to 15 percent.
Reaction: very strongly acid to strongly acid
Redox features: Masses of oxidized iron in shades of red, brown, yellow, and iron depletion in gray range from common to many. Some pedons have no dominant color and have a reticulate color pattern in shades of red, yellow, brown, and gray. The gray part is commonly more clayey than the brown and red part.

BCt and C horizons:
Hue: 7.5YR or 10YR
Value: 5 or 6
Chroma: 6 to 8
Texture: Texture is sandy loam, sandy clay loam, sandy clay or clay.
Fragments: nodules of ironstone range from 0 to 15 percent, by volume. Nodular and platy plinthite ranges from 5 to 15 percent.
Reaction: very strongly acid to strongly acid
Redox features: Masses of oxidized iron in shades of red, brown, yellow, and iron depletion in gray range from common to many. Some pedons have no dominant color and have a reticulate color pattern in shades of red, yellow, brown, and gray. The gray part is commonly more clayey than the brown and red part.

COMPETING SERIES:
The Dothan series is the only known series in the same family.
Dothan soils are on similar positions and have less than 5 percent, by volume, ironstone nodules in the profile.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING:
Parent Material: 0 to 203 centimeters (0 to 80 inches) loamy marine sediments
Landscape: Coastal Plain
Landform: Interfluve
Hillslope Profile Position: Summit, shoulder, and backslope
Geomorphic Component: Sideslopes, and interfluves
Slopes: 0 to 8 percent
Elevation: 30 to 122 meters (98 to 400 feet)
Mean Annual Air Temperature: 13 to 21 degrees C (55 to 70 degrees F)
Mean Annual Precipitation: 1020 to 1740 millimeters (40 to 68 inches)
Frost Free Duration: 190 to 310 days

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
These are Dothan, Carnegie, Clarendon, Cowarts, Faceville, Fuquay, Irvington, Marlboro, Norfolk, Noboco, Orangeburg, Stilson, and Sunsweet soils.
Dothan soils are moderately well drained, are on similar positions and have less than 10 percent, by volume, ironstone nodules in the profile.
Carnegie soils are well drained, are on similar positions, have a particle size class of Fine and have plinthite beginning at a depths of 51 centimeters (20 inches).
Clarendon soils are moderately well drained, are on lower positions, the mineralogy is siliceous and have iron depletions of chroma 2 or less within 76 cm (30 inches) of the soil surface.
Cowarts soils are moderately well and well drained, are on higher and dissected positions, have less than 5 percent by volume plinthite in the subsoils, have a solum thickness less than 152 centimeters (60 inches) from the surface and are Typic subgroup.
Faceville soils are well drained on similar positions, have less than 5 percent ironstones nodules and plinthite in their profiles, have a particle size class of Fine, have redder subsoils and are Typic subgroup.
Fuquay soils are well drained on higher positions and are in an Arenic subgroup.
Irvington soils are well drained on slightly slower positions and have a fragipan.
Marlboro soils are well drained on similar positions, have less than 5 percent ironstones nodules and plinthite in their profiles, have a particle size class of Fine and are Typic subgroup.
Noboco soils are moderately well to well drained on lower positions, classified in the Oxyaquic subgroup, and do not have plinthite or ironstone nodules.
Norfolk soils are well drained on similar positions, have less than 5 percent ironstone nodules and plinthite in their profiles, have a particle size class of Fine-loamy, and are Typic subgroup.
Orangeburg soils are well drained on similar positions, have less than 5 percent ironstone nodules and plinthite in their profiles, have a particle size class of Fine-loamy, have redder subsoils and are in the Typic subgroup.
Stilson soils are moderately well drained on lower positions, and are in an Arenic subgroup.
Sunsweet soils are well drained soils and are on similar positions, have a particle size class of Fine and have plinthite beginning at a depth of 20 centimeters (8 inches).

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY:
Drainage class: Well drained
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity (Ksat): moderately high to moderately low in the lower Btv, BCt, or C horizons, and moderately high to very high in the A and upper B horizons.
Permeability: rapid or moderately rapid to slow in the lower Btv, BCt or C horizons.
Water table: the perched water table is between depths of 129 to 152 centimeters (50 to 60 inches) during the wet season from January through March, but recedes to greater than 203 centimeters (80 inches) during the rest of the year when conditions are dry.
Flooding frequency and Duration: None.
Ponding frequency and Duration: None.

USE AND VEGETATION:
Most areas of Tifton soils are under cultivation with cotton, corn, peanuts, vegetable crops, and small grains. Some areas are in pasture and forestland. The forested areas consist largely of longleaf pine, loblolly pine, slash pine with some scattered hardwoods on cutover areas.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT:
Major Land Resource Area (MLRA): The series occurs primarily in the Southern Coastal Plain (MLRA 133A), but it also occurs to a lesser extent in the Atlantic Coast Flatwoods (MLRA 153A).
Extent: large extent

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Auburn, Alabama.

SERIES ESTABLISHED:
Grady County, Georgia; 1908.

REMARKS:
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon:

Particle-size control section: 27 to 77 centimeters (11 to 31 inches).

Ochric epipedon - 0 to 27 centimeters (0 to 11 inches Apc horizon)

Argillic horizon - 27 to 165 centimeters (11 to 65 inches Btc1, Btc2, Btv1, Btv2, and BCt horizons)

Kandic horizon - 27 to 165 centimeters (11 to 65 inches Btc1, Btc2, Btv1, Btv2, and BCt horizons)

Plinthic feature - 101 to 152 centimeters (39 to 52 inches Btv1, and Btv2 horizons)

Redoximorphic oxidized iron masses - 101 to 203 centimeters (40 to 80 inches) (Btv1, Btv2, BCt, and C horizons)

Redoximorphic iron depletions with chroma of 2 or less - 127 to 203 centimeters (50 to 60 inches) (Btv2, BCt, and C horizons)

The type location was shifted 80 to 90 feet West due to a road widening project that destroyed original site.

This soil is currently classified according to the 12th Edition of the Keys of Soil Taxonomy.

ADDITIONAL DATA:
Laboratory data is available on the National Soil Survey website at: http://ncsslabdatamart.sc.egov.usda.gov/querypage.aspx
Soil Survey Investigations Report No. 16, and Southern Cooperative Series Bulletin 148, May 1970, contains data from a pedon in the general area near the type location. Data on the typifying pedon is available through the National Soil Survey Laboratory and is identified as pedon S81GA277011 and NSSL Nos. 81P2672-2678.

OSD User Site ID: 1999GA277100
OSD User Pedon ID: 1999GA277100


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.