LOCATION VLY NY
Established Series
WAB-ERS-SWF
05/2013
VLY SERIES
The Vly series consists of moderately deep, well drained or somewhat excessively drained soils formed in till. These soils are on glaciated bedrock controlled uplands. Slope ranges from 0 to 70 percent. Mean annual temperature is 44 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation is about 50 inches.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, superactive, frigid Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Vly channery silt loam. (Colors are for moist soil.)
A -- 0 to 2 inches; dusky red (2.5YR 3/2) channery silt loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many medium and fine roots; 25 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 4 inches thick.)
Bw1 -- 2 to 11 inches; reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) very channery loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common medium and fine roots; many medium tubular pores; 35 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary.
Bw2 -- 11 to 21 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/3) very channery loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; few medium tubular pores; 60 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary.
Bw3 -- 21 to 28 inches; reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) very channery loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; few fine and medium roots; few fine tubular pores; 60 percent rock fragments; few fine yellowish red (5YR 5/6) redoximorphic concentrations just above the bedrock; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of Bw horizons 18 to 38 inches.)
2R -- 28 inches, dark reddish brown (2.5YR 3/4) thinly bedded sandstone.
TYPE LOCATION: Greene County, New York, Town of Windham, 75 feet west of a development road, and 300 feet south of the junction with Barnum Road. USGS Hensonville, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 16 minutes, 19 seconds N. and Longitude 74 degrees, 11 minutes, 1 second W. NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments commonly range from 20 to 35 percent in the surface horizon and 35 to 65 percent in the subsoil and subtratum but the range includes subhorizons with a lower limit of 25 percent in the control section. Reaction is very strongly acid or strongly acid throughout the soil.
The A or Ap horizon has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 3 or 4 and chroma of 2 or 3. It is channery or gravelly silt loam or loam. It has weak or moderate fine or medium granular structure and consistence is friable or very friable. Where present, the Ap horizon can range up to 12 inches thick.
The Bw horizon has hue of 5YR or 2.5YR, value of 3 or 4 and chroma of 3 through 6. It is very channery or very gravelly loam or silt loam. It has weak or moderate, fine subangular blocky or granular structure. Some pedons have platy structure in the lower Bw horizon. Consistence is very friable or friable.
Some pedons have a BC horizon with properties similar to the B or C horizons.
The C horizon, where present, has hue of 5YR or 2.5YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 3 or 4. It is very channery or very gravelly loam or silt loam. Consistence is very friable or friable.
COMPETING SERIES: The
Mosinee, Saddlepack, and
Threetrees series are in the same family. Mosinee does not have a lithic contact between 20 and 40 inches. The
Saddlepeak and Threetrees have hues of 7.5YR or yellower in the cambic horizon.
The
Cadosia,
Halcott and
Mongaup series are similar soils in related families. Cadosia soils are more than 60 inches deep to bedrock and have a mesic temperature regime. Halcott soils are 10 to 20 inches deep to bedrock. Mongaup soils have less than 35 percent rock fragments throughout.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Vly soils are on bedrock controlled till uplands. Slope ranges from 0 to 70 percent. These soils formed in reddish till that is derived from reddish sandstone, siltstone and shale. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 47 to 52 inches; mean annual air temperature ranges from 40 to 49 degrees F. The frost-free period ranges from 90-110 days. Elevation ranges from 1750 to 4025 ft. above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Blackhead,
Elka,
Halcott,
Lewbeach,
Mongaup, and
Willowemoc soils. Blackhead and Elka soils are very deep. Lewbeach and Willowemoc soils are very deep and contain fragipans.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained through excessively drained. The potential for surface runoff ranges from very low through very high, but is typically medium through very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high throughout.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the soils are forested or used for unimproved pasture. Many steeper areas have never been cleared. Native vegetation is red maple and sugar maple, beech, white pine and black cherry.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central-eastern New York State in the Catskill Mountains. MLRA 140. The series is extensive with an estimated 100,000 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Greene County, New York 1985.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon are;
a). Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 2 inches (A horizon).
b). Cambic horizon - the zone from 2 to 28 inches (The Bw horizons).
Soil Interpretation Records: NY0305, NY0306
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.