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Xerults

 
gardener
Posts: 1060
Location: Northern Italy
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I think I have this sub-type of utisol soil and google is not helping out at all. I'm in northern Italy. Heavy clay, definately not the "freely draining soil of the mediterranean".

-Does anyone know where in the usa Xerult soil is found (map doesn't have town names)
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/soils/survey/class/maps/?cid=nrcs142p2_053610

-Does anyone have any information about this type of soil, beyond the fact that is is a utisol and it is found in places with hot dry summers and wet winters?

-Does anyone know which plants would be a good fit, based only upon the information about the soil? I mean, I can look out my window and see all sorts of plants, but many are not native and perhaps they aren't adapted to the type of soil in the first place. If i could find plants that actually like this type of soil, perhaps I would be in a better position to make choices about the plants I need.

William
 
Posts: 1947
Location: Southern New England, seaside, avg yearly rainfall 41.91 in, zone 6b
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I don't have any answers for you but I'm interested in any answers others have.

What does grow well there? Anything that's thriving will be a clue.
 
pollinator
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The maritime climate in Western Oregon and California isn't far off of this. The plant makeups probably depends heavily on water table: where it drains well will be fir trees, cedar, hemlock, alder. Where it drains poorly will be alder, ash, maple, hawthorn, cottonwood. In between, probably some oak and maple.
 
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A trip to a farmer's market should yield some useful information. Growers will generally produce whatever does well in the area. Home owners may fuss a great deal over certain plants that are not well adapted to the area. Those whose living depends on a good harvest, will not fiddle their time away on the wrong crops.
 
William James
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@Eric
Thanks. A good description of what's growing here. My site doesn't drain, so I can see hawthorn and maple popping up. Oak from the woods next door is blowing in. Those were planted but seem very present on the floor of the woods, trying to create an understory.

@Dale
We don't have any real farmer's markets like you find in the US, but from what I see, it's just normal stuff like potatoes, corn, leaf veggies, etc. I mean, these things do grow in our soil with enough tillage, dolomite and manure (which is the general widespread growing strategy). My point is what would be growing here if people weren't trying to grow what they want, what does the soil produce just based on it being that type of soil. The general tendency here is wheat or corn. Some do a second crop of soy beans, but that's about it. They say that it's the soil...all you can grow here is wheat and corn they say.

@Matu
The problems is that what grows well might not exactly be what would be growing here. I don't see a lot of alders around, people tend to go for black locust here. I imagine black locust would give way to alder or chestnut in a succession here, but it's difficult to actually see that.

William
 
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