Soil Management Handbook - Ministry of Agriculture and Lands

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Crops Or Crop Groups Alfalfa: alfalfa has a narrow range of moisture tolerance and generally requires “dry feet” and irrigation. Alfalfa is not suited on shallow soils or slopes greater than 15%. Artificially drained sites may have a higher suitability for alfalfa. Slopes between 9 and 15% may require special precautions for harvesting operations. Annual Vegetable Crops: this crop group includes a wide range of crops. Root crop vegetables and annual leafy vegetables are separated from the larger group due to watertable restrictions. The group includes annual legumes (beans, fababeans, lentils, peas and soybeans), cucurbits (pumpkins, melons, cucumbers and squash), brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprouts and kale) and tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic. On slopes between 9 and 15%, drip irrigation practices are required to reduce water erosion. These crops are not generally suited on soils with a high coarse fragment percent (i.e., >50%) or on very stony soils (i.e., stones >S2). 1) Root Crop Vegetables: crops include potatoes, carrots, beets, parsnips and turnips. These crops are not tolerant to shallow watertables, will require organic matter additions for longer term production on fine-textured soils and are restricted to slopes under 9% if mechanical harvesting is used. These crops should not be grown on soils with a stoniness class greater than S1. On slopes greater than 9%, mechanical harvesting of root crops will become difficult. 2) Annual Leafy Vegetables: crops include spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, radish, celery and other ‘salad greens’. These crops are tolerant to shallow watertables during the growing season and the soil should have a stoniness class of S1 or less. Asparagus: a deep-rooted crop, asparagus should be planted only into fertile, well-drained loams and sandy loams which are free of perennial weeds. Blueberries: blueberries are a shallow-rooted crop and needs a mulch on very coarse and very fine-textured soils. Blueberries generally prefer an acidic soil with a high organic matter percent or an organic soil, and have a relatively high moisture requirement, but do not like “wet feet”. Included with blueberries are Ribes spp. Currents and gooseberries can be grown on heavier, wetter soils. Cereals: crops include barley, fall rye, oats, wheat and winter wheat. Oil seeds, such as canola, would be included in this crop group. Yields can be maximized when summer watertables are between 75 to 100 cm. Irrigation may not be economical on coarse-textured soils. Corn: a deep-rooted crop, corn is suited to soils with a low coarse fragment percentage, and generally requires irrigation. Corn can be produced on slopes up to 15% if it is contour planted. Includes sweet and forage corn. Forage Crops – drier sites: soils and landscapes are well drained, meaning these sites tend to be more arid. Irrigation may be required. Slopes under 15% are suitable for mechanical harvesting. Crops include orchard grass, ryegrass, timothy and barley (see slope comment for alfalfa). Forage Crops – wetter sites: soils and landscapes are imperfect to poorly drained or soils have a high moistureholding capacity. Irrigation is not generally required. Crops include reed canarygrass, creeping red fescue and meadow foxtail and most clovers (clovers may be suited to drier sites as well). Ginseng: is suited to a well defined soil which has a loam to silt loam texture with a workable soil depth of 30 cm and a whole depth of 60 cm, low coarse fragment percent less than 15%, good water retention and moderate organic matter content. It is advisable to avoid gravels, shale and clay. The slopes should be less than 15%. Where slopes are >5%, there is a risk of water running on the shad cloth causing erosion or “wet spots” under the cloth. Where slopes are >9%, mechanical digging is affected. Soil Management Handbook – Okanagan-Similkameen Valleys 9
Grapes: grape suitability is strongly dependent on variety and microclimate. Grapes will not tolerate a water-logged soil and perform better on a well drained soil. Site selection should have suitable soil drainage, and good waterholding capacity, and some sites may require organic matter additions and cover cropping practices. Slopes to 20% are suited, to 25% are less suited and greater than 25% are unsuited. Refer to the Atlas of Suitable Grape Growing Locations in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys of British Columbia for more information. Grasslands: sites which are suited to the grassland crop group many not have a high animal unit month (AUM) carrying capacity. They are best suited to “grass species”. Grasslands are defined as lands where native vegetation, including grasses, forbs, sedges, shrubs and trees, and cultivated species, i.e., crested wheatgrass or reed canarygrass, grow well. They may have been revegetated to include tame forages, however, intensive forage production, irrigation, drainage or fertilization is not normal. If harvested, they are normally harvested by grazing due to steepness and/or stoniness. Areas are designated to this crop group when slopes are 15% and up, stoniness greater than S3 and depth of the soil less than 50 cm over compact till or bedrock. Some lowland, wetter sites or soils have also been given this crop group designation. This is a result of several soil limitations which do not allow for use of soil management inputs at an economic level. These lands may be Crown or privately owned. Grassland sites may or may not be used for grazing, outdoor recreation or may be held as ecological reserves. Nursery and Christmas Trees: this crop group refers to in-ground rather than container production of nursery stock. These crops generally will not tolerate shallow watertables, but are suited to shallow soils. Christmas trees may be grown on steeper slopes (greater than 15%) and on soils with a higher coarse fragment percent (i.e., >75%). Raspberries: included with raspberries are blackberries and loganberries. Raspberries are well suited on slopes to 9% due to erosion risk and suited up to 15%. Cover cropping on an annual basis is recommended. Strawberries: all varieties. Strawberries may be considered to be well suited only on slopes to 9% or less because of the risk or erosion. Tree Fruits: this is the largest crop group grown in the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys other than perennial forages and rangeland. Due to their economic importance and variability in management, Table 3 has been developed to distinguish the differences between species and rootstocks. This table is modeled after the “Tree Fruit Suitability Mapping Project” of the Okanagan Valley Tree Fruit Authority (OVTFA). Depth to watertable, texture and slope are the most critical soil characteristics for tree fruits. The OVTFA system also uses pH to 30 cm (if pH >9.0) and salinity to 50 cm. This handbook considers pH and salinity to be parameters which can be dealt with through various management inputs. Depth of soil and drainage class are used in this Handbook to describe the depth to watertable and depth to root restrictive layer. Site suitability may include other parameters not dealt with by this Handbook or the OVTFA project. Climate and microclimate factors are also important, however, they are not covered in detail in this Handbook. 10 Soil Management Handbook – Okanagan-Similkameen Valleys
Page 2 and 3: Soil Management Handbook For The Ok
Page 4 and 5: Preface The Soil Management Handboo
Page 6 and 7: Table Of Contents Preface..........
Page 8 and 9: Table of Contents Con't. Page 3.6 D
Page 10 and 11: List Of Soil Management Groups And
Page 12: List Of Tables Table1: Farm Conserv
Page 15 and 16: To obtain information about the soi
Page 17 and 18: List of Definitions for Table 1 Con
Page 19 and 20: Well Suited Crops • All necessary
Page 21: Soil Depth refers to the depth to e
Page 25 and 26: Soil Management Groups This section
Page 27 and 28: Gammil Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 29 and 30: Greata Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 31 and 32: Kelowna Soil Management Group Soil
Page 33 and 34: Munson Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 35 and 36: Postill Soil Management Group Soil
Page 37 and 38: Rumohr Soil Management Group Soil S
Page 39 and 40: Skaha Soil Management Group Soil Se
Page 41 and 42: Summerland Soil Management Group So
Page 43 and 44: Miscellaneous Soils Soil Series: Ar
Page 45 and 46: Soil Management Guide This section
Page 47 and 48: Table 5 Soil Particle Size and Char
Page 49 and 50: Table 6 Physical Characteristics of
Page 51 and 52: plant roots and organic matter. The
Page 53 and 54: The bulk density of high organic mi
Page 55 and 56: Other management practices, such as
Page 57 and 58: Figure 11 Schematic drawing of the
Page 59 and 60: 1 m, etc., in an orchard block wher
Page 61 and 62: 3. Water Management High rainfall d
Page 63 and 64: Table 12 Availability Coefficients
Page 65 and 66: Impact of large drops of water disp
Page 67 and 68: The single most important soil fact
Page 69 and 70: land. Drainage systems are also nec
Page 71 and 72: Detailed information is provided in
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Table 16 Generalized Soil Profile D
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Table 17 Drain Recommendations Base
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is very susceptible to structure de
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vertically into the soil and as it
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Figure 19 Schematic drawing of the
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Case 1: Well Structured Soils If th
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fracture requires the soil to expan
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"tie up" some soil nitrogen, althou
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efer to the following Factsheets: S
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contaminate groundwater. Water cont
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Table 18 N, P and K Content of Vari
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field access is possible, manure ap
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Annual or permanent cover will redu
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agricultural production, its impact
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References Published Sources Agricu
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Stevenson, D.S. and Brownlee, C.H.
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Appendix A-2 Figure 2 Typical summe
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Appendix A-4 fall frost. The angle
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Appendix A-6 Abbreviations Used in
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Appendix B: Soil Series And Locatio
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Greata Soil Management Group Greata
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Postill Soil Management Group Eanea
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Miscellaneous Soils Armstrong (A:er
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT B.C
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Soil Management Handbook - Ministry of Agriculture and Lands

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