AGR 2320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Pore Space In Soil, Dew Point, Water Retention Curve

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Agriculture
• Course: AGR 2320
• Professor: John Lauzon

Document Summary

Describes the functional relation between water content and matric potential. What is the ability of the soil to pull in water. As the soil wets up the larger pores will begin to fill until the soils are completely saturated. Measure the matric potential at different points (using bars because the numbers are large. When the matric potential is zero (all pores are filled) that soil had a water content of silty clay (60% of that soil must have pore space. Sandy soil drops really fast, sand has almost all big pores, all the big pores are empty so it drops fast. Pla(cid:374)ts (cid:272)a(cid:374)"t extra(cid:272)t the (cid:449)ater fro(cid:373) the soil: lo(cid:449) (cid:449)ater (cid:272)o(cid:374)te(cid:374)t. If all the pores are filled with water aeration is poor for plants. Field capacity: soil water content when free drainage has stopped. Wilting point: soil water content at which the plant will become permanently wilted.