Soil Management Handbook - Ministry of Agriculture and Lands

Roy Creek Soil Management Group
Soil Series: Cameron Lake (CNA) (CN), Inkaneep
(IK) and Roy Creek (RY)
General Characteristics: This group of soils has
developed on moderately coarse to
medium-textured fluvial fan deposits. Gravels
usually occur quite deep in the subsoil. Surface
and subsurface stoniness varies from nonstony
(S0) to slightly stony (S1). The soils are
imperfectly drained with inclusions of
moderately well drained sites. The slopes of
these soils vary from nearly level (0.5%) to
moderately sloping (9%).
Dominant Soil Limitations:
• These soils may have fluctuating watertables that
can occur to within 50 cm of their surfaces.
• Excess subsoil moisture exists for some crops in
the early part of the growing season.
• Organic matter content of surface layers is low.
Well Suited Crops: Annual leafy vegetables, forage
crops - wetter sites and grasslands.
Management Inputs:
Organic Matter Incorporation: Incorporation of
organic matter is required for moisture
conservation when the soils are cultivated.
Suited Crops: Alfalfa, cereals, corn, forage crops -
drier sites, ginseng, grapes, nursery and
Christmas trees, raspberries, root crop vegetables,
strawberries and tree fruits are suited.
Blueberries may be suitable if organic matter is
incorporated and a mulch is used. Drainage is
recommended where watertables fluctuate to
within 50 cm of the soil surface.
Management Inputs:
Water Management System: Drainage is required to
lower the groundwater table in some locations
during the early part of the growing season.
Where drainage is required, the suggested drain
spacing is 16 m at a 1.2 m depth.
Organic Matter Incorporation: Incorporation of
organic matter is required to improve the
water-holding capacity, nutrient-holding capacity
and to decrease the effects of compaction.
Unsuited Crops: Asparagus.
Reasons: The normally deep-rooted habit of this crop
would necessitate more intensive drainage
systems than required for the other crops. The
costs versus returns might make the exercise
unprofitable.
NOTE: The Cameron Lake soil series is mapped in
both the North and the Okanagan and Similkameen
Valleys. The CNA symbol is used in the North and
the CN symbol in the Okanagan and Similkameen.
Soil Management Handbook – Okanagan-Similkameen Valleys 23