55. Group of Soil Series No.55

This group of soils is moderately deep, fine-textured and well drained that developed from elastic rocks in low precipitation areas. Weathered rock with fine-grained elastic is commonly found at depth 50 - 100 cm. They are moderate fertility and medium acid. will be cracked in dry season. Soil fertility is moderate. Soil reaction is high. Soils in this group are Chatturat (Ct) and Wang Saphung (Ws) series.                Majority of the land use are dryland upland crops i.e. maize, sorghum, legumes and sugar cane. Due to number of limitation such as poor surface structure and prone to erosion, yiels is relatively low.

Problems : Moderately deep soils (50-100cm.) to skeletal layer, lack of water in dry season, high erodibility

Management for upland crops or vegetables : Upland and vegetable crops could be well grown on leveled top soils with crop rotation. It needs to be improved with 2-3 ton/rai compose fertilizer or animal manure or mixed green manure (broadcast 8-10 kg/rai sword bean , 6-8 kg/rai cow pea or 4-6 kg/rai Crotalaria juncia) with soils before flowering and leave for 1-2 weeks. Chemical or liquid LDD fertilizer will also be applied according to recommendation . Farm ponds are recommended to preserve water to be used in dry season.

Management for orchard : Soil preparation in 50*50*50 pit is to mix 20-35 kg compose fertilizer or animal manure. Conserve the soils by cover crops, mulching, and contour or fencing the tree with vetiver. Application of compose fertilizer or animal manure with chemical or liquid LDD fertilizer at vegetative growth, before and after harvesting. Farm ponds are recommended to preserve water to be used in dry season.