LOCATION READINGTON PA+MD NJ VAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Fragiudalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Readington silt loam in grass; recreational field. (Colors are for moist interior soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 10 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/3) silt loam; strong medium granular structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; many very fine and fine roots throughout; common fine and medium pores; 5 percent subrounded gravel; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
Bt1--10 to 17 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/3) silt loam; strong medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; firm, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots throughout; few medium pores; very few clay films on faces of peds; 1 percent subrounded gravel, 11 percent subangular channers; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bt2--17 to 34 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) silty clay loam; strong coarse prismatic structure; very firm, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; common very fine and fine roots throughout; few fine pores; few clay films on faces of peds; 1 percent fine distinct reddish gray (5YR 5/2), iron depletions and 4 percent medium distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), masses of oxidized iron infused into matrix along faces of peds; 1 percent subrounded gravel, and 8 percent subangular channers; strongly acid; clear irregular boundary.
Btx--34 to 48 inches; 60 percent yellowish red (5YR 4/6) and 40 percent reddish brown (5YR 4/4) clay loam; moderate coarse prismatic parting to strong coarse and very coarse platy structure; extremely firm, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; brittle; few clay films on faces of peds; 5 percent medium distinct black (N 2.5/0), manganese coatings around rock fragments; 5 percent coarse distinct pinkish gray (5YR 6/2), iron depletions and 9 percent coarse distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), masses of oxidized iron infused into matrix along faces of peds; 2 percent subrounded gravel, and 7 percent subangular channers; moderately acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
C--48 to 90 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) channery silt loam; moderate coarse subangular blocky structure; extremely firm, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; 4 percent medium prominent strong brown(7.5YR 5/6), masses of oxidized iron infused into matrix along faces of peds; 3 percent subrounded gravel and 25 percent subangular channers; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
R--90 inches, dusky red (10R 3/3) bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; New Hanover Township, Girl Scout Camp, 2,400 feet. Southeast of the junction of New Hanover Square and Hildebeidel Road on Hildebeidel Road, 2000 feet southwest from Hildebeidel Road in the grass (recreational field), Sassamansville, Pennsylvania USGS 7.5 Minute Quadrangles. Latitude 40 degree 77 minutes 31.4 second North, longitude 75 degree 33 minute 7.8 seconds West.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 35 to 60 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to 90 inches. Depth to the fragipan ranges from 20 to 36 inches. Rock fragments of angular shale, siltstone, sandstone, and in some pedons quartzite gravel, range from 0 to 20 percent in the upper part of the solum and from 5 to 50 percent in the lower part of the solum and C horizon. Reaction ranges from extremely acid through slightly acid in the upper part of the solum where unlimed, and from very strongly acid through slightly acid in the lower part of the solum and C horizon.
The Ap horizon has hue of 2.5YR through 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture is silt loam or loam in the fine-earth fraction.
The Bt horizon has hue of 2.5YR or 5YR, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 3 through 6. Brownish or grayish redox features generally are in the B horizons below a depth of about 17 inches. Redox features with chromas of two or less do not occur in the top 10 inches of the argillic horizon. Texture ranges from loam through silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction.
The Btx horizon has hue of 10R through 5YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 through 6. Texture ranges from loam through silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction.
Some pedons have a C horizon. It has hue of 10R through 7.5YR, value of 3 to 4, and chroma of 2 to 4. Fine earth texture is loam, silt loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam.
COMPETING SERIES: The Bartley, Comly, Gatton, Hustontown, Jonca, and Wooster soils are in the same family. Bartley, Comly, Jonca, and Wooster soils have hue of 7.5YR or yellower in the B horizon. Gatton soils have a lithologic discontinuity within the solum. Hustontown soils are on colluvial fans and U- shape drainageways and headslopes.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Readington soils are on concave, nearly level to sloping lower hillsides, upland flats, drainage ways, and stream heads. Slopes are 0 to 15 percent. The soils formed in medium textured residuum largely from reddish noncalcareous shale, siltstone, and fine grained sandstone. The climate in humid temperature; mean annual precipitation ranges from 38 to 48 inches, mean annual air temperature ranges from 50 to 55 degrees F., and the freeze-free season ranges from 170 to 200 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Readington soils are in the same landscape as the Abbottstown, Athol, Bucks, Chalfont, Croton, Doylestown, Klinesville, Lansdale, Lawrenceville, Lewisberry, Penn, Reaville and Steinsburg soils. Abbottstown, Croton, and Doylestown soils have dominant chroma of two or less in the argillic horizon. Athol, Bucks, Lansdale, Lewisberry, and Penn soils do not have mottles and fragipans and Penn soils also have bedrock within 40 inches. The Chalfont soils have mottles of two chroma or less in the top ten inches of the Bt. Lawrenceville soils are fine-silty in the particle-size control section and do not have hue of 5YR or redder in the B horizon. Stainsburg soils have coarse loamy texture and bedrock within 40 inches. Klinesville soils have bedrock within 20 inches and Reaville soils have bedrock within 40 inches.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained; moderately slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Approximately 85 percent in cropland. Woodland areas are oak-hickory mixed hardwoods.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Piedmont of southeastern Pennsylvania, Central New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. The series is of large extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Upper Raritan River area, New Jersey, 1937.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 10 inches (Ap and BA horizons).
2. Argillic horizon - the zone from 10 to 48 inches (Bt, Btx horizons).
3. Fragipan - the zone from 34 to 48 inches (Btx horizon).
Classification only was changed in 11/94.
Previous revision GDM-EAW 4/2005. 09/2008 Pedon Description and type location updated.