Consideration 4: Your soil

Your soil type will determine:

  • Irrigation intervals – frequent because water leaches quickly, or less frequent as the soil retains the water for longer?

  • Irrigation volume per hour – do you need to apply volume of water slowly as the soil infiltration is slow and you need to avoid run-off?

  • Dripper spacing – how far will the water move laterally through the soil?

 

Let’s start with discussing field capacity, saturation, and permanent wilt point.

Saturation
All pores filled with water – No air pockets.
Field Capacity
Large pores are drained by gravity. This is the upper limit of storable water in the soil.
Permanent Wilting Point
Plants cannot remove adequate water to survive

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