This post is going to be a super quick post for you to read with the purpose of educating yourself on which soil you will discover on your property before you settle on your real estate purchase.
Categories –
* Entisols
* Alfisols
* Histosols
* Inseptisols
* Utisols
* Spodosols
* Mollisols
Definition:
Entisols – This soil type is located in S. Fl, Central FL and the panhandle area. and is hard to work, requires heavy amending and the top layer is heavily eroded.
Alfisols – This soil is found in heavily forested natural lands, it’s extremely nourishing for plants with a heavy clay base which only has a few rocks.
Histosols – water bogged soil with an extremely high peat content, great addition to order gardens but frequently doesn’t survive being transported to other locations and will dry up quickly. Located in South Florida and Everglade areas.
Inseptisols – Found in the layer just above entisols, firm layer of bedrock and very unfriendly terrain when it comes to gardening except in the rare instances of soil depth being decent with just enough nutrients and is located in the Everglades of Florida.
Utisols – Similar to Alfisols, full of nutrients, but doesn’t hold much organic matter, slightly acidic amendments can increase alkalinity of the soil. Found all over the state of Florida and can be identified by clay on the surface.
Spodosols – Fairly high level of iron and aluminum that’s sandy and doesn’t hold water very well. Located in Central FL, it must be heavily amended to repair.
Mollisols – Nutrient rich soil, holds water very well and plants grow successfully. It can be dug up and transported to your property but it’s very hard to find naturally except in rare instances in the Panhandle.
Before you purchase any property, grab a shovel and dig down to see what type of soils you are working with. From this, grab some in a ziplock bag and send off to a lab to see if there is anything suspicious that prevents you from gardening on the property in ground.
Suburban & Rural Homesteading Today 