Soil types, soil attributes, and land
suitability for cultivating banana of four types of parent rocks were analyzed in this
paper based on the HaiSOTER (Soil and Terrain Digital Database) database and ALES model (Automated Land Evaluation System). Cambosols and Ferrosols were the dominating soil typess on the parent material of acid igneous, Cambosols on clastic sediments, Ferralosols on basic igneous, Primosols and Cambosols on marine sediments. Soil types developed from different parent rocks were clearly influenced by parent rocks, soil age,
soil genesis environment et al. Soil sequences were closely related to the type of parent rocks. But the strong wreathing condition of tropical climate changed the simple successive relationship from parent rocks to soils in Hainan. Soil age, topography, and local environment show their influence on soil distribution developed from the same parent rock. Soils developed from clastic sediments keep more features which inherited from parent rocks than soils developed from others parent rocks. Under the tropical climate condition which means strong weathering process and heavy biological activities in Hainan, some soil attributes show invisible difference among parent rocks such as the contents of exchangeable Ca 2+, Mg 2+ and Na +, at the same time; some show clear successive features from mother materials such as exchangeable K + content in soils developed from acid igneous because of the high content of potash feldspar in parent rocks. The suitability for planting banana is very low for soils developed from four parent rocks without factitious
technological and financial input. But for soils developed from basic igneous and marine materials, the suitability can be notably enhanced with the condition of moderate technological and financial input. This is because soils developed from basic igneous and marine materials were limited rather by water and fertilizer supplies than by landform or climate. Water and fertilizer supplies are readily-changed with technological and financial input. So, the potential for planting banana in Hainan is considerable if the desire for technological and financial input can be met.