# Best soil for trees



## cutlass (Jul 13, 2002)

What type of soil is best for different type of trees like maples to spruce. I know this is a very broad question but is there a book on this subject?


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## John Paul Sanborn (Jul 13, 2002)

This is species dependant, and soemtimes varietal. trees grown from one seed sourse will not grow well in other places.

Dirr's woody plant manual has culture requirments.

the USFS silvics manual has some of this information http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/silvics_manual/table_of_contents.htm


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## Gopher (Aug 3, 2002)

In looking at trees' soil requirements in general, there are many soil types that would meet many tree species needs when the trees are young. However, as the root zone increases, the amount of radical pH doctoring, as well as macro and micro nutrient fertilizing we would have to do becomes impractical.

So, to answer your question: Almost any tree will grow on a sandy loam textured soil with a pH in the 6 to 7 range, but after a number of years, plenty of care would be involved to keep any one of the trees healthy that like consditions away from said norm.

Here is another question along this line (in a way); "Certain soils will grow almost everything (including developments), while others are void of most vegetation. As a society, why can't we preserve the Class I land for the growing of everything, and 'plant' our developments on the rest?" At least here in the Midwest, we move our city limits to the county road, or the town line. To me this, has never made any sense.

We should get rid of the man-made boundaries and use watershed lines (topographic lines) and geologic and soil boundaries instead.

Wow, that rambled!

Gopher


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