Guide to Soils in Which to Grow Timber Species
You can tell a lot about a particular site by what trees are growing on it. Many trees grow on a range of soil and site conditions. Some are more particular, growing better on dry sites, some in wet soils, and some do well in moderate or mesic conditions. The following is a very general, brief, rule-of-thumb guide to some of the major timber species of Florida and the soils in which they are most competitive.
Pines
| Slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. elliottii) | Grows on moist, sandy flatwoods (spodosols) and savannah sites. |
| Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) | Grows across a broad range of sites from wet to dry, but is more competitive with slash and loblolly pines on drier upland soils. |
| Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) | Grows very well on loamy soils that occur in drainages or lands suitable for agriculture. Abandoned crop lands that were once good producers of crops grow loblolly well. |
| Sand pine (Pinus clausa) | Grows best on droughty sandy soils that rarely, if ever, are saturated with water. |