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crazy banana
03-01-2014, 09:42 PM
USDA Websoil survey to find some free interesting information about your soil

Web Soil Survey - Home (http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/)

Richard
03-01-2014, 09:51 PM
A word of caution: check the date of the soil survey being used in your area. For example, when I used it to check on my soils in Rancho Penasquitos the survey was telling me that the soil pH was 5.8 -- in 1935. But, after decades of watering with Colorado River water, the soil is actually around pH 7.

Nicolas Naranja
03-02-2014, 10:52 PM
I have used the website for a few classes during my PhD work. Nothing substitutes digging a hole in the dirt though. I just witnessed this in Gainesville, FL last weekend where we were doing percolation tests. We had one hole that had completely drained 18" of water, and 20 feet away we had another hole that still had 6" of water in the bottom of the hole. There wasn't any apparent change in elevation either.

crazy banana
03-02-2014, 11:51 PM
I have used the website for a few classes during my PhD work. Nothing substitutes digging a hole in the dirt though. I just witnessed this in Gainesville, FL last weekend where we were doing percolation tests. We had one hole that had completely drained 18" of water, and 20 feet away we had another hole that still had 6" of water in the bottom of the hole. There wasn't any apparent change in elevation either.
I agree. The soil survey gives you a basic idea. Other tests should be done.
For planting bananas in the ground pretty much anything and everything will work for the backyard grower to start with. The art is to supplement it with organics and fertilizer, rotating crops if possible to achieve the best results year after year.

Richard
03-03-2014, 01:40 AM
... The art is to supplement it with organics and fertilizer, rotating crops if possible to achieve the best results year after year.

I believe there is confusion here between two very different methods: (1) sustaining soil levels of soil nutrients and (2) feeding plants directly. The former is a major source of ground water pollution in the U.S.