LOCATION WAITSFIELD VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, active, frigid Fluventic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Waitsfield silt loam, on a 1 percent southwest-facing slope in a hay field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 9 inches; dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) silt loam; light gray (10YR 7/2) dry; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; many very fine and common fine roots; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. (7 to 10 inches thick)
Bw--9 to 20 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) very fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common very fine roots; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. (7 to 29 inches thick)
2C--20 to 65 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) fine sand; single grain; loose; slightly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Washington County, Vermont; Town of East Montpelier, 2000 feet east of East Montpelier Village and 300 feet south of the Winooski River. Latitude 44 degrees 16 minutes 16 seconds N., and Longitude 72 degrees 28 minutes 54 seconds W., NAD27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum and depth to contrasting material ranges from 14 to 36 inches. Depth to bedrock is more than 60 inches. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to slightly acid, Rock fragments are mostly gravel and range from 0 to 5 percent in the solum and 0 to 60 percent in the substratum.
The Ap or A horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 1 to 4. It is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, or fine sandy loam.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR, 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, or fine sandy loam.
Some pedons have a BC horizon with color and texture similar to the Bw horizon. It is up to 5 inches thick.
Some pedons have a C horizon above the contrasting layers that has a hue of 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is very fine sandy loam or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. It is up to 5 inches thick.
The 2C horizon is neutral or has hue of 10YR, 2.5Y, or 5Y, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 0 to 4. It is loamy fine sand, fine sand, sand, or coarse sand in the fine-earth fraction.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other soils in the same family. The Barbour, Fryburg, Ondawa, and Weider soils are in related families. Barbour soils have hue of 7.5YR or redder throughout the profile and have a mesic temperature regime. Fryburg soils have a coarse-silty particle-size control section. Ondawa soils have a coarse-loamy particle-size control section. Weider soils have redoximorphic features in the solum.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Waitsfield soils are on nearly level floodplains. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. They formed in loamy alluvium overlying sandy alluvium. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 50 inches and the mean annual temperature ranges from 42 to 46 degrees F. The frost-free season ranges from 105 to 160 days. Elevation ranges from 90 to 1200 feet above mean sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Sunday, Sunny, and Weider soils. The excessively drained Sunday soils are adjacent to rivers or streams. The poorly drained Sunny soils are in depressions and drainageways on the floodplain. The moderately well drained Weider soils are in slightly lower positions on the floodplain.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderate in the solum and rapid in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are cleared and used for silage corn, hay, and pasture. A few areas are wooded. Eastern white pine is a common tree.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Vermont; MLRAs 142, 143, and 144B. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Washington County, Vermont, 1996.
REMARKS: 1. The classification is updated with this revision to Coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, active, frigid Fluventic Dystrudepts. The former classification was Coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, frigid Fluventic Dystrochepts. 2. Waitsfield soils were previously included with Ondawa soils in Vermont. 3. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 9 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 9 to 20 inches (Bw horizon).
c. Fluventic Dystrudepts feature - base saturation (by ammonium acetate) is less than 60 percent in all subhorizons between the depths of 10 to 30 inches below the soil surface; and the organic carbon content decreases irregularly with depth or remains more than 0.2 percent to a depth of 50 inches.
d. Strongly contrasting particle-size class - the transition between the coarse-loamy material and the underlying sandy or sandy-skeletal material is less than 5 inches thick. The loamy material has less than 50 percent fine or coarse sand.