Physical and chemical properties of soils under mid hill humid conditions of North West Himalayas

A total of 50 Global positioning (GPS) surface (0-15cm) soil samples were collected from important sites covering wheat, maize, pea, potato and rajmash growing areas from Ladhbadhol valley District Mandi, Himachal Pradesh (India) lying in North West Himalayas were studied for their morphological, physical and chemical properties. The results show that soils are deep, well drained, silty loam to silty clay loam with dark brown to brownish yellow in colour. No gravels were noticed upto 0.6 m depth and the soil consistency was firm to loose. Few to many black brown concretions were observed only in rice growing soils. Silty loam was the dominant texture of the soils irrespective of soil depth. Coarse sand fraction was more in all sites. In none of the soils except Dharmpur, illuviation of clay had been observed. The values of bulk density, particle density and porosity were variable depending upon organic carbon and other soil characteristics.