HBRC > What We Do > Land > Soils of Hawke's Bay

New Soil Order classification	BROWN Occur where summer dryness is uncommon and where soil is not waterlogged in winter.
Old Soil Group classification	Yellow brown earths, yellow brown sands, and intergrades between yellow brown earths and yellow grey earths.
Common names associated with this Soil Order	Matamau, Makaretu, Kaweka, Ruahine, Gwavas, Waimarama, Maraetotara.
Physical characteristics	Occur where summer droughts are uncommon. Located on the greywacke rocks in the foothills of the Ruahine and Kaweka Rangers (and the farmed edge of the Urewera National Park). Low to moderate natural fertility. Predominantly silt loam texture with friable topsoils. Well developed nutty and granular structure. Moderate P retention in topsoils increasing in the subsoils to 60-90%. Reducing if the allophane clay content increases. Can suffer from leaching due to high, constant rainfall. Can be acidic <5.5ph.
Drainage and moisture availability	Well drained. Moderate to low macroporosity level (amount of large pore spaces). Available water content is high in the topsoils at 25-30% of soil volume but this reduces rapidly in the subsoils to less than 15%. Not drought-prone as soils rarely dry out.
Rooting depth	Excellent. Soils are consistently deeper than 60cm. Allows trees to tap the nutrient reserves and moisture zones. When soil depth is 45cm or less, profile depth can limit tree growth over its lifetime.

Ruahins soil, Makaretu
Source: Simon Stokes
Matamau soil, Makaretu
Source: Simon Stokes

Brown