LOCATION HOLDERTON               NY

Established Series
PSP-WEH-MWH
09/2013

HOLDERTON SERIES


The Holderton series consists of very deep, somewhat poorly drained soils on flood plains. They formed in loamy alluvial deposits. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high to high in the mineral soil. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 9 degrees C (46 degrees F) and mean annual precipitation is about 1080 mm (42.5 inches).

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, nonacid, mesic Fluventic Endoaquepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Holderton silt loam on a 1 percent slope in a hayfield. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)

Ap--0 to 25 cm (0 to 10 inches), dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; moderate medium and fine granular structure; friable; many very fine and fine roots and common medium roots; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (15 to 30 cm (6 to 12 inches) thick)

Bw1--25 to 46 cm (10 to 18 inches), dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; common fine and medium distinct light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) and common fine and medium pale brown (10YR 6/3) areas of iron depletions; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary.

Bw2 -- 46 to 89 cm (18 to 35 inches), brown (10YR 4/3) fine sandy loam; moderate medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots; common fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulations and olive gray (5Y 5/2) areas of iron depletion on 60% of ped faces; common fine distinct black (10YR 2/1) iron-manganese concretions; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 8 to 76 cm (3 to 30 inches).)

C1 -- 89 to 107 cm (35 to 42 inches), 60 percent grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) and 40 percent light olive brown sandy loam; massive; friable; few fine roots; many coarse prominent strong brown (7.5YR 4/6) masses of iron accumulations in the matrix; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.

C2 -- 107 to 183 cm (42 to 72 inches), dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) gravelly loamy coarse sand; loose; single grained; 30 percent gravel; moderately acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Allegany County, New York, Town of Willing, 150 feet southwest of intersection of County Route 29 and Mapes Road. USGS Wellsville South, NY topographic quadrangle; elevation 1550 feet; Latitude 42 degrees, 2 minutes, 53 seconds N. and Longitude 77 degrees, 55 minutes, 46 seconds W., NAD 1983.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 61 to 102 cm (24 to 40 inches). Depth to bedrock is 152 cm (60 inches) or more. Rock fragments, mainly gravel, range from 0 to 10 percent by volume in the surface layer, from 0 to 20 percent in the subsoil, and from 0 to 35 percent in the substratum. Reaction ranges from moderately acid to neutral in the solum and from moderately acid to moderately alkaline in the substratum.

The Ap or A horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is silt loam, loam, or fine sandy loam.

The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 1 to 4. Texture is silt loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction.

The BC horizon has colors and textures similar to the B horizon. Structure is platy, or the horizon is massive.

The C horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 1 to 6. Texture is silt loam, loam, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam, in the fine-earth fraction. Some pedons have a 2C horizon of loamy fine sand, loamy sand, or loamy coarse sand in the lower part that is stratified.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no other known series in this family.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Holderton soils are nearly level and are on flood plains along low gradient streams. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. The soils formed in recent alluvium derived from glacial drift of Wisconsin age. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 795 to 1725 cm (31 to 68 inches); mean annual air temperature ranges from 6 to 11 degrees C (43 to 52 degrees F); and the growing season ranges from 105 to 180 days. These soils generally occur at elevations between 50 and 600 meters (164 and 1,968 feet).

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Holderton soils are the somewhat poorly drained member of a drainage sequence that includes the well drained Tioga, moderately well drained Middlebury, and poorly and very poorly drained Wayland soils. Chenango, Howard, and Valois soils are on adjacent higher gravelly terraces. Mardin, Volusia, Chautauqua and Busti soils are glacial till soils on surrounding hillsides. Raynham and Getzville soils are silty soils that occupy similar lowlands positions but are not subject to common flooding.

DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Somewhat poorly drained. The potential for surface runoff is negligible to very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the mineral soil.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of this soil are in corn and hay crops. Native vegetation is mixed hardwoods including red maple, sugar maple, white ash, walnut and Eastern hemlock.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern and South Central New York. MLRA 101, 139 140. The series is moderately extensive.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Chautauqua County, New York 1988.

REMARKS: Holderton series was proposed for somewhat poorly drained soils previously included with the Middlebury series. The Middlebury series is now restricted to moderately well drained.

The original pedon from Chautauqua County, NY classified as a Fluvaquentic Endoaquepts in the 8th edition of Soil Taxonomy. In 2005 a new pedon from Allegany County, NY was substituted for the original pedon from Chautauqua County, NY because of changes in the 9th edition of Soil Taxonomy. Pedons from the 3 counties where this has been mapped in NY (Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Allegany) classify as Fluventic Endoaquepts using the 9th edition.

The elevation range listed is the range that was determined through SDJR to be valid for most soils that occur in valleys across the extent of the MLRA map unit, and is not intended to represent the elevations of this series as it is currently mapped. It is anticipated that this series extent will eventually be expanded to cover the "somewhat poorly drained" areas previously mapped as the Middlebury series, since Middlebury series now only allows for "moderately well drained".

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in the typical pedon include:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to a depth of 25 cm (10 inches) (Ap horizon).
2. Irregular decrease in organic carbon with depth and is greater than 0.2 percent within 1.25 meters (50 inches).
3. An Aquic moisture regime - evidenced by low chroma ped face colors and redoximorphic features in the Bw2 horizon.
4. Particle-size control section from 25 to 100 cm (10 and 39 inches) that is coarse-loamy by weighted average.


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.