SFS11

Location: Streatham

Australian Soil Classification: Vertic (& Eutrophic), Mottled-Mesonatric, Grey SODOSOL

Northcote Factual Key: Duplex

Landscape Description: Level plain?
Site Description: Flat to very gently sloping simple slope, convex.
Land Use: Canola cropping. In 1998 there were raised beds.

SFS11 Landscape.

Soil Profile Morphology:

Surface Soil

Ap	0-10 cm	Brown (10YR4/3); sandy clay loam; apedal to very weakly pedal; weak consistence dry; pH 6.0; clear change to:	SFS11 Profile.
A2	10-25/30 cm	Brown (10YR5/3), conspicuously bleached (10YR7/4d); sandy clay loam; apedal; many fine and medium macropores; firm consistence dry; few fine to medium buckshot (some magnetic), sporadic patches of buckshot that are >50%; pH 5.2; abrupt change to:
Subsoil
B21gt	25/30-80 cm	Light olive brown (2.5Y5/4) very gleyed, with distinct fine yellow (2.5Y8/8) and dark red (2.5YR3/6) mottles and some darker coatings on ped faces; heavy clay; pedal; some pockets of coarse prismatic structure; very strong consistence dry; common buckshot; many fine pores; pH 7.1 to 8.3 at depth; gradual change to:
B22k	80+ cm	Light olive brown (2.5Y5/3) gley; medium heavy clay; fine polyhedral to lenticular structure; small slickensides; very few buckshot; very few fine hard calcium carbonate concretions; slightly calcareous; pH 9.0.
Subsoil (on other side of pit - less gleyed, more structure)
			SFS11 Other pit face - shows prismatic structure in the B21.
B21tg	25/30-80 cm	Very dark grey (10YR3/1) with many faint light olive brown (2.5Y5/3) mottles; heavy clay; very coarse prismatic tending to columnar, parting to coarse prismatic, parting to very fine polyhedral structure; very few buckshot; many fine pores; pH ???; gradual change to:

Key Profile Features:

Strong texture contrast between surface (A) horizons and subsoil (B21) horizon.
Conspicuously bleached subsurface (A2) horizon.

Soil Profile Characteristics:

	pH	Salinity Rating	Sodicity	Dispersion
Surface (A1 horizon)	Moderately Acid	Low-Medium	Non-Sodic	None
Subsoil (B21 horizon)	Near Neutral	Very Low	Sodic	None¹
Deeper subsoil (at 80 cm)	Strongly Alkaline	Low	Strongly Sodic	Strong-Complete

¹ Strong - complete dispersion after remoulding

Image: SFS11 graphs

Horizon	Horizon Depth (cm)	pH (water)	pH (CaCl₂)	EC dS/m	NaCl %	Organic Carbon %	Total Nitrogen %	Exchangeable Aluminium ppm	Exchangeable Acididty meq/100g	Exchangeable Cations				Coarse Sand (0.2-2.0 mm) %	Fine Sand (0.02-0.2 mm) %	Silt (0.002-0.02 mm) %	Clay (<0.002 mm) %	Field Capacity % w/w	Wilting Point % w/w
										Ca	Mg	K	Na
										meq/100g
Ap	0-5	6	5.5	0.28	0.03	2.5	0.11	<10	7.9	4.4	0.9	1.1	<0.1	14	40	22	17	26.2	9.1
A2	15-25	5.2	4.3	0.07				62	6.9	1.3	0.61	0.42	0.24	12	42	28	20	24.6	7.1
B21gt (higher)	35-50	7.1	5.7	0.11					12	5.9	11	1.8	3.3	2	5	3	85	49.3	30.7
B21gt (lower)	50-70	8.3	8.3	0.14					6.9	5.6	14	2.1	5	1	6	3	86	58.8	31.4
B22	80+	9	8.1	0.27	<0.01				2.9	5.8	15	2.1	6.2	2	10	6	76	51.8	30.3

Management Considerations:

Whole Profile

Plant available water capacity (PAWC) is considered to be medium (estimated at 121 mm) in the upper 70 cm of this soil profile. Effective rooting depth (ERD) is restricted to 70 cm due to the highly sodic subsoils (ESP>20).

Profile Described By: Richard MacEwan (May 1999).

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