Florida Agricultural Experiment Station


 Both soil type and climate are entirely suitable for celery
production. There are several soil types, but all are of organic
nature and origin. By far the largest area is composed of the
highly organic sawgrass peat lands, which are largely still in
native sawgrass. The more highly mineralized muck soils, in-
cluding the custard apple, elder and lake bottom mucks, are
located principally around Lake Okeechobee. To a considerable
extent these latter soil types are already being intensively
cropped. Their proximity to the lake makes them almost frost
free, and they are utilized largely for the more tender crops,
such as beans, tomatoes, potatoes and sugarcane. This will
probably continue to be the case.
 According to soil maps there are some two and a half to
three million acres of land classed as organic Everglades soils.
The organic layer is too shallow over some of this area for
practical cropping over a period of years. However, there are
still large areas in native sawgrass which, with adequate drain-
age, are entirely suitable for the growing of hardy truck crops.
It is into these areas that further expansion must proceed, and
for this reason most of the experimental work on celery pro-
duction has been carried out on sawgrass peat soils.
 A brief discussion of some of the characteristics of these
organic soils will emphasize their suitability for growing celery.
In the first place, with adequate drainage (which should include
unit ditch control and mole drainage) the level of the water
table can be regulated and held at an optimum depth during the
winter months. The entire growing period of the winter crop
of celery comes in the dry season of winter. A dry season has
no limiting effect upon the water supply-on the contrary, it
has been found that the more prolonged the spring drouth, the
higher the yield of celery produced.
 A second important factor affecting the suitability of such
 a soil to celery is the fact that since it is largely organic,
 the soil acts as a huge sponge, with a large capacity for hold-
 ing water, adequate pore space for necessary soil air, and a fine
 capacity for holding fertilizer materials, thus preventing their
 rapid loss by leaching waters. This latter property insures
 efficient utilization of fertilizer materials, and, therefore, reduces
 greatly the tonnage per acre that must be applied, in contrast
 to the amount required on coarse mineral soils.