LOCATION HUDSON NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, illitic, mesic Glossaquic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Hudson silt loam, on a 4 percent in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise specified.)
Ap-- 0 to 5 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 12 inches thick.)
E-- 5 to 8 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silt loam; weak thick platy structure; friable; many fine roots; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick.)
B/E-- 8 to 16 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silty clay; moderate very coarse prismatic structure parting to moderate medium subangular blocky; firm, sticky, plastic; common fine roots; common fine pores; few faint clay films lining pores; brown (10YR 5/3), light gray (10YR 7/2) dry, silt coatings greater than 1 mm thick on all surfaces of peds (E material, which constitutes less than 15 percent by volume); neutral; clear wavy boundary. (4 to 14 inches thick.)
Bt-- 16 to 28 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) silty clay; moderate very coarse prismatic structure parting to moderate medium subangular blocky; firm, sticky, plastic; few roots; nearly continuous distinct clay films on all faces of peds and on surfaces along pores; common medium distinct gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletion and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulations in the matrix; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (6 to 24 inches thick.)
C-- 28 to 72 inches; mixed grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) and light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silty clay; moderate medium plate like divisions inherited from parent material; firm, sticky, plastic; few roots in upper part; strongly effervescent, moderately alkaline.
TYPE LOCATION: Rensselaer County, New York; town of Schodack, 1/4 mile west of County Route No. 1, and 1/2 mile north of county route No. 2. USGS Kinderhook, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 29 minutes, 02 seconds N. and Longitude 73 degrees, 44 minutes, 29 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 20 to 60 inches. Depth to carbonates ranges from 20 to 70 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Rock fragments, mostly gravel, range from 0 to 25 percent by volume in surface and subsurface horizons, and from 0 to 10 percent in the horizons below. The soil ranges from very strongly acid to neutral in the A, E and B/E horizons, from very strongly acid to slightly alkaline in the B horizons, and neutral to moderately alkaline in the C horizons.
The Ap and A horizons have hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 2 through 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. They have loam, silt loam and silty clay loam textures in the fine-earth fraction. They have weak to strong, fine or medium granular, or subangular blocky structure, and friable or very friable consistence.
The E horizon, when present, has hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 5 or 6, and chroma of 2 or 3, and is faintly mottled in some pedons. It is very fine sandy loam, loam, silt loam or silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction. The E horizon has weak or moderate subangular blocky or platy structure, and very friable to firm consistence.
The B/E horizon has ranges in characteristics like that of the Bt in the B part, and like that of the E in the E part. The albic material constitutes less than 15 percent by volume of the horizon. Redoximorphic features are few through many and faint, or they are absent.
The Bt horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 4. The horizon has both low and high chroma redoximorphic features. In pedons with matrix colors in chroma of 2, the color is lithochromic and not evidence of an aquic moisture regime. The Bt horizon has silty clay loam or silty clay textures with subhorizons in some pedons ranging from silt loam to clay. They have moderate or strong, medium or coarse angular or subangular blocky structure with or without medium to very coarse prisms. They are firm or very firm. Some pedons have a BC horizon where the solum is thicker.
The C horizons have hue of 5YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 3. They range from silt loam to clay. The material is massive, or has plate like divisions inherited from the varved parent material.
COMPETING SERIES: The Riga series is the other soil in this family. Riga soils have bedrock at depths of 20 to 40 inches.
The Broughton, Caneadea, Cayuga, Lairdsville, Riga, Vergennes, and Wilpoint series are similar soils in related families. Broughton and Vergennes soils have very fine particle-size control sections. Caneadea soils have an aquic moisture regime. Cayuga soils lack 2 chroma redoximorphic features in the Bt horizon, and have gravelly loam lithologic discontinuities. Lairdsville and Wilpoint soils have bedrock at depths of 20 to 40 inches.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Hudson soils are nearly level to very steep on lake plains and lacustrine capped uplands and valley sides. Slope ranges from 0 to 60 percent. More sloping and dissected areas show evidence of slumping or mass slipping. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 46 degrees to 50 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 45 inches, and mean annual frost-free season ranges from 120 to 180 days. The elevation ranges from 50 to 800 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Cayuga soils and the Bath, Cambridge, Collamer, Dunkirk, Honeoye, Langford, Lansing, Madalin, Odessa, Ontario, Rhinebeck, Schoharie, and Varysburg series. Somewhat poorly drained Rhinebeck soils and poorly and very poorly drained Madalin soils form a drainage sequence with Hudson soils. Bath, Cambridge and Langford soils contain fragipans, and are on associated till plains. Collamer and Dunkirk soils formed in silty glacial lake sediments. Honeoye, Lansing, and Ontario soils are well drained, and formed in associated till deposits. Odessa and Schoharie soils formed in very similar sediments that are red. In addition, Odessa soils are somewhat poorly drained. Varysburg soils have loamy skeletal over clayey particle-size control sections.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is medium to very high. Permeability is moderately slow or moderate in the surface and subsurface layers and slow or very slow in the lower part of the subsoil and substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas have been cleared, and are used for growing corn, small grains, hay, and pasture. Steeper areas are pastured, or are reverting to brushy woodland. Native vegetation is sugar maple, white ash, hickory, oak, white pine, white cedar, red cedar, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Erie and Ontario lake plains, the Mohawk and Hudson valleys, and the larger valleys of the Allegheny Plateau of New York. MLRA 100, 101 139, 140, 142, and 144A.The series is extensive.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Dutchess County, New York, 1907.
REMARKS: The Hudson series is in areas previously mapped as Caneadea soils on slopes ranging from 15 to 35 percent. In this setting the colors of the soil frequently qualify for placement as Ochraqualfs, but do not satisfy the requirement for an aquic moisture regime.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the soil surface to a depth of 8 inches (Ap and E horizons).
2. Argillic horizon - the zone from 8 to 28 inches (B/E and Bt horizon).
3. Glossaquic subgroup - as evidenced by interfingering of albic material in the upper part of the argillic horizon (B/E horizon) and low chroma mottles in the upper 10 inches of the argillic horizon (Bt horizon).