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.

Despite being a well structured clay, this soil profile holds a relatively small amount of readily available soil moisture. The A1 horizon appears to have moderate soil structure and water retention properties. The topsoil (A11 horizon) has a moderate to high bulk density of 1.32 g/cm³ yet a high saturated hydraulic conductivity of 198 mm/hr. The drainable porosity at 8.6 % is below the ideal value of 10% which suggests the topsoil may encounter slightly longer than expected periods of low oxygen availability following rainfall or irrigation. Overall the A11 horizon has a reasonable proportion of large well connected macropores despite being slightly compacted. The A11 and A12 horizons topsoil have a relatively low proportion of plant available water content at 10.2 % or 34.7 mm (to 34 cm depth), and only 4.4 % to 4.7 % or 15.5 mm readily available soil moisture for rapid growth. Somewhat surprisingly the B21 and B3 horizons have greater readily available soil moisture at 5.2% to 5.5 % than the two A1 horizons, yet very little drainable porosity at only 2.0 % to 3.1 %. Notably the B2 horizon also has a large proportion of tightly held soil moisture.