Soil Hydrology Overview

This data reflects both the quality of the soil structure, the amount of water available for growth and the ease by which these soils are able to be irrigated. The data indicates how much water is available for vigorous tree and fruit growth, as well as how much water is available for tree maintenance and survival. This data can also be used to better schedule irrigation, and compare irrigation requirements between soils.

The topsoil (A1 horizon) appears to be moderately to highly compact having a bulk density of 1.47 g/cm³, and a very low saturated hydraulic conductivity for a ferrosol of 15.6 mm/hr, and a low to moderate drainable porosity of 7.3 % which is below the ideal level of 10 %. The A1 horizon contains 21.5 % or 32 mm plant available water (PAWC), of which 7.5 % or 11.2 mm is readily available to support rapid growth (green Figure 3), an additional 21.0 mm soil moisture is available to the tree but at a cost to growth (Orange Figure 3), whilst 17.0 mm is not able to be extracted by trees (Red figure 2). The B21 horizon appears to be better structured than the A1 horizon. The B21 horizon has lower bulk density 1.25 g/cm³ compared to 1.47 g/cm³ and higher drainable porosity at 11.2 %. This provides further evidence that the A1 horizon is compact. The B22 horizon is similar to that of the A1 horizon except that the proportion of unavailable soil water is higher than the other horizons. Soil colour and the moderate drainable porosity in the B1 and B2 indicates the whole soil profile is well drained providing an ideal environment for root growth throughout the subsoil.