TOPIC: Ohio Soil

Ohio Soil info.

ohiodnr.com/tabid/9073/Default.aspx

Latt

Latt,

As of late, I am becoming more interested in a personal study as to soils. ie: \"Parent Material\" right on thru soil series, and eventually' with permissions, right into a specific geographical area for collecting soil samples.

The aim of this study would of course be as to predict herbal compatability in most any geographic region. ... We all know the basics, such as slope aspect, shading, drainage, etc. but I feel that understang soils at a deeper level, ( no pun intended ... lol) would be a plus.

The internet is a valuable tool, but it doesn't get specific enough. Therefore, I am going to get with some forestry and soil gurus at WVU extension services in order to help educate myself.

I think, at least for me, that this will make for a broader spectrum in learning more about the plant that I have come to love and enjoy.

Being a beginner grower, and a little too old to get beyond the hobbyist level, this personal study will primarily be for fun, enjoyment, and prehaps a tidbit for sharing.

Bill

BFB,
I am with you on that. It is all about the soil. What amazes me is how different one ridge can be from a different ridge within the same woods only hundreds of feet apart.

I have one site on my property that has three ridges facing NE. So it is ridge then ravine then ridge then ravine then ridge then ravine all running parallel to each other. Elevation is exactly the same, canopy is exactly the same, slope is exactly the same. Seed from the same batch was planted on each ridge top and side with the same planting method. It was an identical planting on all accounts and each one looked like a carbon copy of the other.

Needless to say the first ridge did poorly and the second is so so and the third is outstanding. I can attribute nothing other than a difference in the soil to the success or lack of, pertaining to these three sites all within the same woods only 100's of feet apart.
So I am convinced that soil has the ability to have it own Micro environment within close proximity of each other.
Latt

Latt,

Yup, I agree.

Of course, my experience with the close proximity occurance/nonoccurance in exact same environs, all come from hunting 'seng, as I am a new grower.

Here's an odd (not so odd when I thought it thru) one that I noticed several years ago: I was driving on a gravel road that I use every time that I go to my camp in the mountains. ... Along the high bank at the roads edge, I spotted many many companion plants. I knew the woods on both sides of the road, and other than a rare Jack in the Pulpit, there wasn't much of anything other than hay scented fern.
Anyway, I gave those woods another traipsing, and found those copses to be more or less the same as I knew them to be.

I got to thinking about all of that, and wondered, \"Why all those companions along that narrow band of high bank?\" ... Here's what I finally came up with: That area (3400' elevation) gets a lot of snow during Winters, and the road itself is sort of a main artery backroad. There is a State Road garage nearby, and they salt that road frequently throughout the Winter. I believe they inadvertedly treated the soil along that high bank in salting the road. Of course, road salt may not be the best of soil treatments, but it would most certainly make a difference, and I honestly can't think of any other reason as to why it would be that way.

I first noticed that occurance over 10 years ago, and it is still the same today. Other than a bare few on the lower side, the adjacent woods are still more or less barren of these plants.

The plants are Bloodroot, Both kinds of Cohosh, False Solomon's Seal, Trilliums, J.I.P. and Spikenard. I assume the seed got there either airborne and/or from wildlife. I have not ever seen a 'seng in there with these plants.

Bill