Soil moisture constants | Permanent wilting point |
Soil moisture - Water added to a soil during irrigation is held in the pores of soil and this is termed as soil moisture.
Basic physical properties of soil
Soil provides necessary medium for water to be used by plants through their roots. Water acts as a medium to carry a large amount of nutrients essential for growth of a plant. The rate of entry of water into the soil, it's retention and then its movement and availability of plant roots are physical phenomena that contribute to the growth of vegetation.
Classification of soil water
Gravitational water
Capillary water
Hygroscopic water
Gravitational water is not held by soil and drains freely under the influence of gravity.
Capillary water is held in the soil or retained in the soil after the gravitational water has drained off. The capillary water was also designated as available water.
Hygroscopic water it is that water which is absorbed by the particles of dry soil from the atmosphere and is held as a very thin film on the surface of the soil particles due to adhesion or attraction between surface of particle and water molecules. Below the permanent wilting point This soil contains only hygroscopic force. Hygroscopic water is not available for plant use.
This while water may also be classified on the basis of its availability to the plant roots or otherwise as an available available and gravitational water.
Soil moisture tension it is a force per unit area required to extract water from the soil.
It is measure of tenacity with which water is retained in this soil.
Soil moisture constants
Total water content of soil when all the ports of this file at filled with water is called saturation capacity.
Maximum amount of water which can be held by a soil against gravity is called field capacity. This soil moisture tension at field capacity range between 1 by 10 to 1 by 3 atmosphere.
Permanent wilting point is list amount of water available after that plant does not take water.
Available moisture it is date moisture content of soil between the field capacity and the permanent wilting point is term as available moisture.
Readily available moisture it is available moisture which is not easily extracted by plant roots only 75% of the available moisture is usually a readily available.
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