Is Soil Composition Important?
- The root systems of any plant are key to success.
- We rarely see them, or consider them;
When we have health or growth issues with our plant.

- The soil that surrounds these roots;
is critical towards plant health!

The percentage of the various sized particles
that make up a soil; specify its composition.
(decomposed granite can be small enough to be classified as "Clay")

The resulting soil composition determines critical parameters
- Hydraulic conductivity (moisture flow rate)
- Effective water capacity (available air pores)
- Water Holding Capacity

All of these factors determine how deeply water permeates
and how long it takes for the irrigation to achieve depth

Bottom line is that Soil Composition is Very Important.
Too often soil composition is ignored
when designing or scheduling irrigation systems.

Why is Matching Irrigation to Soil Important?

Drought in the Southwest US continues while aquifers and reservoirs are depleted. Landscape water accounts for approximately 50% of total residential water consumption. This amounts to about 7% of total water consumption. The California estimate of water use for irrigation was reported at approximately 500 billion gallons. Water Waste must not be ignored!

At present nearly 30% of this water is being lost needlessly to evaporation, and this is due to irrigation moisture being too shallow. An excessive amount of irrigation being done through spray or high-flow-rate drip. Slow-drip is 1 or 2 gph. Scheduling is too frequent and the run time short and shallow.

The often ignored 35 billion dollar question is "How deep does each irrigation penetrate?"

Can we continue to waste 35 billion gallons of water each year!
Deep Irrigations reduce evaporation substantially.
Shallow and frequent Irrigations increase evaporation.

Applying the correct water volume at the correct flow rate
Is how-to assure optimum depth and minimum waste
Matching Irrigation to Soil is How to Accomplish this!

Occasionally we do get "rainy seasons."
This doesn't change how very precious our water resources are

GG Soil-Flow Pro-I Calculators

These calculators provide fully automated analysis and are designed to make matching soil and irrigation easy and straightforward.

Thousands of lines of internal computer code provide for you, a quick and easy way to discover the best irrigation layout and schedule for any plant you may have.

Answer six basic questions about your soil and plant, then enter any existing scheduling that needs to be complied with, and get a 2 page report. Comprehensive details, along with educational links to explain the science behind the recommendation.

The Soil Explorer

This free to use software calculates the actual Hydraulic Conductivity of the soil. The results are in compliance with the USDA's published chart (seen below).

By trying various combinations of Soil Composition & Irrigation application rates; You can learn how these changes affect the depth of moisture achieved.

As you can see, within each soil type color group, the flow rate (at saturation) varies by 1,000%, this means within that same group moisture flow can vary as much as 10 times (faster or slower). To properly match irrigation application rates to the soil being irrigated, we need to get much closer than this. The algorithms in the Soil Explorer will be accurate to the USDA chart within 5%.

Compare the USDA flow rate chart above with the Basic Soil Composition Chart seen below. Simply knowing which soil type existing where irrigation is occurring, often leaves an enormous error as regards how the soil will respond to irrigation moisture movement.

If you'd like some background on just what factors are analyzed by these calculators and get a better understanding on how various soil types respond to water application, click here to use the Soil Explorer.

The Soil Explorer reports how fast water can be applied before reaching saturation. This indicates how fast a particular soil type can accept moisture. Also reported is the quantity of water needed to reach field capacity in a particular soil. It uses the wilting point of that soil to calculate the amount of moisture that should be within the soil prior to irrigation. This moisture needs to be included for an accurate analysis of irrigation water needed.

The formulas and algorithms in the Soil Explorer are also at work in each GG Soil-Flow Pro-I Calculators.

The Explorer was developed as an educational tool to help understand & appreciate how soil moisture depth varies according to soil composition and applied irrigation flow rate (per square foot.)

Just Guessing about
which type Emitters to Use?

Way too often irrigation systems are simply copied from other popular local systems. Unfortunately, many irrigation systems in the desert southwest utilize spray type, or rapid drip emitters. These fast flow devices put out too much water to allow for adequately deep moisture permeation of the soil. The result is poor distribution, high evaporation, and wasted water. This also creates shallow root systems causing stressed plants.

Using the Soil Explorer Try using Dripperline flow of 0.75 gph Then try plugging in a high flow rate Shrubbler (6 gph / sq. ft.) Note how moisture depth is substantially reduced!

More than wasted water!

Not only water waste, but plants are being stressed and dying because far too many irrigation systems are poorly designed and improperly scheduled.
Why? Soil composition is basically being ignored. With slow draining soil, even hand watering requires 20 to 40 minutes of slow application in order to penetrate deeply enough to support a strong root system. Who stands in one spot for that long?!

Fast draining soil too has many parameters that need to be addressed.

Plants look like this

When they should look like this

Thriving on good distribution
and adequate deep water

In regions where annual rainfall is not enough to support normal plant life, or areas impacted by seasonal drought, proper irrigation is vitally needed in order to sustain plant life and plant health for local landscapes and gardens.

There is a genuine science for proper irrigation. Soil composition, the make-up or mix of the soil particles, differs greatly between various soils in each neighborhood. If the irrigation system does not properly match the composition of the soil, either water will be wasted or the plant will stress and decline.

Gone is the era of "guesswork-irrigation" for drought prone regions. Water is a precious resource, and plant health is vital towards each human beings' sense of happiness. We need beautiful and healthy landscapes and gardens, just as we need to conserve water.

Because the science for dealing with this can be quite complex, the Garden Galaxy Soil-Flow Pro-I has been designed to make the method of accomplishing these objectives understandable, practical and quick.

Is applying the same rate and amount of water to a clayey soil
as to a sandy soil going to work?