LOCATION ELLINGTON CT+NJEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, subactive, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Ellington silt loam - cultivated and limed, 3 percent slope. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) silt loam; pinkish gray (7.5YR 6/2) dry; weak medium granular structure; friable; few fine roots; 5 percent gravel; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary.
(6 to 12 inches thick)
Bw1--8 to 18 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; 5 percent gravel; moderately acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bw2--18 to 26 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) very fine sandy loam; massive; friable; 10 percent gravel; common medium distinct reddish gray (5YR 5/2) iron depletions and dark red (2.5YR 3/6) masses of iron accumulation; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 12 to 36 inches.)
2C--26 to 65 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) stratified sand and gravel with a few thin lenses of sandy loam; single grain; loose; 50 percent gravel; few fine distinct reddish gray (5YR 5/2) iron depletions and few fine faint yellowish red (5YR 4/6) masses of iron accumulation; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: New Haven County, Connecticut; town of Cheshire, 0.5 mile south on Cheshire Street from the intersection of Cheshire Street and East Johnson Avenue, 75 feet west of Cheshire Street. USGS Meriden topographic quadrangle, latitude 41 degrees 32 minutes 32 seconds N., longitude 72 degrees 52 minutes 06 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 18 to 40 inches and typically corresponds to the depth to contrasting sand or sand and gravel layers. Rock fragments, mainly rounded gravel, range from 0 to 30 percent by volume in the solum and from 0 to 60 percent in the substratum. Unless limed, the soil ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid throughout.
The Ap horizon has hue of 5YR to 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 to 4. Dry value is 6 or more. 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 silt loam, very fine sandy loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. It has weak or moderate granular structure and is friable or very friable.
The Bw horizon has dominant hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. Some pedons have a subhorizon with hue of 7.5YR in the upper part of the horizon. The Bw horizon has redoximorphic features above a depth of 24 inches. Texture is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction with less than 50 percent fine or coarser sand. The Bw horizon has weak or moderate granular or subangular blocky structure, or it is massive. Consistence is friable or very friable. Some pedons have a sandy loam Bw subhorizon or BC horizon less than 5 inches thick just above the 2C horizon.
The 2C horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, and value and chroma of 3 to 6. In some pedons the horizon does not have redoximorphic features. The horizon is commonly stratified sand and gravel. Texture of individual layers ranges from coarse sand to fine sand to loamy fine sand in the fine-earth fraction.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other soils in the same family.
The Ninigret series is in a closely related family. Ninigret soils have hue of 7.5YR or yellower throughout.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Ellington soils are nearly level to strongly sloping soils on glaciofluvial landforms. Slope commonly is 0 to 8 percent , but the range includes 0 to 15 percent. The soils formed in loamy over stratified sandy and gravelly outwash derived from reddish brown sedimentary rocks and basalt. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 52 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 35 to 50 inches, and the growing season ranges from 120 to 195 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Bash, Berlin, Branford, Cheshire, Hartford, Ludlow, Manchester, Narragansett, Penwood, Raypol, Raynham, Tisbury, Walpole, Watchaug, Wapping and Wethersfield soils on nearby landscapes. Bash soils are somewhat poorly drained soils on flood plains. Berlin soils are finer-textured soils on glaciolacustrine terraces. Cheshire, Ludlow, Wapping, Watchaug and Wethersfield soils are soils on nearby till plains, hills, and drumlins. Hartford soils are somewhat excessively drained. Manchester and Penwood soils are excessively drained and sandy-skeletal. Branford soils are well drained. Raypol, Raynham and Walpole soils are poorly drained and are in low areas.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. Surface runoff is slow to medium. Permeability is moderate or moderately rapid in the solum and rapid or very rapid in the substratum. The soil has a seasonally high water table.
USE AND VEGETATION: Much of the acreage is used for cultivated crops, hay, or pasture. Common crops are silage corn, vegetables, tobacco, and nursery stock. Some areas are wooded or used for community development. Common trees are red, white, and back oak, hickory, red maple, white ash, gray birch, and white pine.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciofluvial terraces in the Connecticut River Valley of Connecticut and in northern New Jersey; MLRA's 144A, 145, and 148. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Scantic River Watershed Survey, Connecticut and Massachusetts, 1937.
REMARKS: This revision reflects a change in soil classification (8th Edition of the Keys) and general updating.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 8 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 8 to 26 inches (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons).
3. Aquic feature - low chroma iron depletions features are within a depth of 24 inches from the surface (Bw horizon).
4. Strongly contrasting particle-size classes - the control section is coarse-loamy above a depth of 26 inches and is sandy or sandy-skeletal below 26 inches.