SOIL-MOISTURE CONDITIONS IN RELATION TO PLANT GROWTH

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Abstract
Move-ment of water by capillarity from moist to drier soil was extremely slow and slight in both amount and extent. Inability to maintain uniform moisture content in the soil is a serious source of error in many water-relation studies. With fruit trees in containers, at each application of water the soil mass was raised to its maximum field capacity throughout, and the trees were allowed to deplete the average soil moisture to different extents. Range of moisture fluctuations was slight in some cases, while in others it was as much as from the maximum field capacity to the calculated wilting coefficient. There was no relation between soil-moisture content and either use of water or growth in length. When soil-moisture content was reduced to a percentage corresponding to the wilting coefficient, the trees wilted and did not revive until water was again added to the soil. Prunus trees growing on soil with water content higher than that corresponding to the wilting coefficient showed markedly wider stomatal openings by day than those grown on soil with water at or near the wilting coefficient, but differences in width of stomatal openings of leaves could not be detected when the soil-moisture contents varied but did not fall to the wilting coefficient. Results indicate that the trees were not affected until the soil moisture was reduced to the wilting coefficient.

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