Hello everyone we are continuing on with Water Week here on the podcast

side note does anyone remember that movie Water World with Kevin Kostner I'll remember

as they were holding up the dirt because the dirt was more valuable than any other resource in the world because the whole world was covered in water.

Well as gardeners, if we were in water world, we would be rich as heck.

All right, today we're talking about soil water retention and the things, the variables that can go into that and how they

determine how much water your soil will hold.

So the first thing to know is that the pores of your soil or the spaces that exist between the particles of soil are the passageways for water.

That's how water either stays in or leaves the soil

that you have.

And your particular soil's ability to retain water,

as we've talked about before,

is really related to the size of the particles that comprise

your soil.

I think if you've listened to the podcast for a while you know we've talked about clay soil,

sandy soil and silty soil.

Well, water molecules are going to hold really tightly to the extremely fine

particles of clay soil and they will pass more or less right through sandy soil, which is why clay

soil retains more water. However, that doesn't mean that clay soil is just

infinitely better than sandy soil. Sandy soil has its own unique benefits as well. It's a good

way to add extra drainage to your soil if it's simply holding onto too much water.

So the three soil textures obviously contribute quite a bit to the soil retention or the water retention of the soil.

However, that's not the only thing that matters as far as water retention and soil.

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