Included it in a presentation on verticals. When I gave it to the Dutch Fork ARC here in SC heard another story about how things vary. A ham said he put up a vertical and had great results. A friend living just a few miles away copied the same installation and didn't do nearly as well. The first guy did some digging. He discovered that despite his living in a "2" region like you, he happened to be in a sweet spot and conductivity much higher. Maybe you'll get lucky too.
By the way, the gist of my presentation is try it. Despite people telling me verticals don't work well, I'm doing reasonably well now. To paraphrase K9YC: Don’t let your inability to make a perfect antenna prevent you from making an effective one. I decided to view things this way... If you eliminate as much loss as you can in the near field you will have more RF energy going into the far field and a much stronger signal coming out after those losses.
Kevan N4XL