Location
Tagaytay is a component city. It is located in the
Province of Cavite – approximately 56 kilometers south of Manila
– situated approximately 600 meters above sea level. It lies at
approximately 120 degrees 56 min. longitude and 14 degrees 6 min. latitude.
Land Area and Topography
The City has a total land area of 65.00 square kilometers
or 6,500 hectares. It is characterized by a mixed-topography. The eastern
and southern portions are covered by hills and mountains (generally
forest and open grasslands) with a slope ranging from 10.0 to over 25%.
The remaining portion are level and nearly level area interspersed with
very greatly sloping surface. It is politically subdivided into 34 barangays,
10 of which are considered urban and the rest are rural.
Climate
Tagaytay City’s climate is characterized by relatively
low temperature, low humidity and abundant rainfall. The city is endowed
with a cool and invigorating climate with an average temperature of
22.7 degrees Celsius. The city is misty and is relatively cooler during
the months of December, January and February. Like most areas in the
Province of Cavite, the city has two pronounced seasons: dry from November
to April and wet during the rest of the year.
Soil
A knowledge of the soil types and soil characteristics
provides some guiding principles in selecting and recommending the various
uses of land. The basic types of soils found in Tagaytay City belong
to Tagaytay series. These are the Tagaytay sandy loam and the Tagaytay
loam.
The soil of Tagaytay series have the following characteristics:
the color of the surface soil may vary from brown to dark brown or nearly
black in color; the virgin soil are dark brown to nearly black while
these soils that have been under cultivation for a number of years are
brown to dark brown.
The thickness of the surface soil depends upon the
elevation and topography of the land; the surface soils in the upper
part of the rolling areas are shallow while those in the sloping areas
are deep.
The subsoils is either brown or light yellowish depending
upon the extent of weathering of the tuffaceous parent materials; both
the surface soils and subsoils are friable/granular and contain some
tuffaceous concretions; the substratum is tuffaceous material of volcanic
origin.
Soils of this series are devoted to diversified farming.
Crops suited to this type of soil are upland rice, corn, mongo, tomatoes,
peanuts and coffee. Batangas mandarin (citrus), avocado, chico, jackfruit,
kaimito, mango and cashew are also found to grow well in this soil.