Soil Water Holding Capacity
Water holding capacity is the total amount of water that your soil can hold. There are a couple of reference terms to describe how much water your soil is holding:
- Field capacity is when the soil contains as much water as it can hold
- Wilting point is when the plant can no longer access water from the soil
- Plant available water is the difference between field capacity and wilting point.
Plant available water = Field capacity minus wilting point
Water holding capacity and plant available water varies across soil types and are important in determining the volume of irrigation required for a crop.
Calculate your readily available water on the:
