Hygroscopic materials

[gatewood]

I've very recently become interested in the use of hygroscopic materials (things that absorb and retain a lot of water), for the purpose of making the ground retain more water, so as to reduce the costs of irrigation.

So far, the only ones I've come up with are:

1. Cotton and paper in general. They have excellent hygroscopy, but will degrade rather quickly.
2. Wood ash. Also known as a good dissecant, it'll remain in the ground for longer, but, if not washed (to remove the potassium carbonate), it'll raise the grounds pH.
3. Charcoal. The worst of them all, but it'll stay there practically forever (and it has a lot more benefits).

You guys have experience in this, or know something more about the matter?

 

[cquick]

4. Organic matter and humus. Made by returning all crop residues to the soil, avoiding cultivation and growing cover crops whenever the ground would otherwise be bare.

 

[delilah]

Wool ?

 

[yellow belly]

i do not irrigate plenty falls out of the sky and clay soil retains enough

 

[Macsky]

Definitely wool

 

[delilah]

What we talking about ? Arable, veg, fruit ? What scale ?

 

[Nearly]

Silica gel in flowerpots.

 

[Paul E]

You want your land to hold moisture???
I'll swap you however much you want!
Or you could just plug the drains, or try outwintering cattle.

 

[Agrivator]

Is there any easy way of turning stones into a nice fertile well-drained sandy-loam?

 

[beefandsleep]

Is there any easy way of turning stones into a nice fertile well-drained sandy-loam?

A glacier and a few million years might do it.

 

[Ffermer Bach]

read Gabe Brown's book, Dirt to Soil, I think just increasing organic matter (as @Charles Quick Quick said) is the answer, more organic matter, more of the rainfall is infiltrated (as opposed to running off) and more is retained in the soil too, cover crops, straw chop/cultivate, mob grazing etc

 

[Ffermer Bach]

although, everyone must not straw chop, as we need it here in the West for bedding! And if you are organic, the only way to add a bit of potash back into the soil!

 

[Agrivator]

Just out of interest. A heavy crop takes a lot out of the soil.

But it also leaves a thick stubble, which is incorporated back into the soil. And a heavy crop must be associated with an extensive root system, which remains in the soil.

To what extent does the stubble and roots offset the organic matter removed by the crop (including straw or haulm)?

 

[Still Farming]

Sponge

 

[Nearly]

By the time the grain and straw is removed there must be less than 0.5t and acre of biomass left.
Not enough to make progress to increase OM in soil.

 

[farmerm]

There are various polymers than can absorb and release large quantities of water.... Another important factor to consider when looking at soils and irrigation is the hydrophobic effect that can occur in some soils types when they dry out... I frequently come across potato ridges that have had an inch of irrigation pre/peri emergence, fields that appear saturated on the surface with water lying in the furrows. You scrape the top off the ridge and find the tubers sitting in bone dry dust and cobble under a wet soil blanket that is barely a few cm deep... Most of the water having either run off or drained though the profile and what little water the soil has absorbed is quickly evaporated from the surface.

 

[Brisel]

I've very recently become interested in the use of hygroscopic materials (things that absorb and retain a lot of water), for the purpose of making the ground retain more water, so as to reduce the costs of irrigation.

So far, the only ones I've come up with are:

1. Cotton and paper in general. They have excellent hygroscopy, but will degrade rather quickly.
2. Wood ash. Also known as a good dissecant, it'll remain in the ground for longer, but, if not washed (to remove the potassium carbonate), it'll raise the grounds pH.
3. Charcoal. The worst of them all, but it'll stay there practically forever (and it has a lot more benefits).

You guys have experience in this, or know something more about the matter?

If you have high Magnesium levels and low calcium levels, consider using gypsum. Manage potassium levels - this facilitates water movement in cells.

I have to say that @Charles Quick 's post about organic matter is the best by far

 

[phil]

Soils need roots, continuous spring barley for 12 years, cover crop each year. in 2009 OM was 6%, in 2019 OM was 9%

Photo is of soil near a pole where there was never a cover crop compared to the field.

Everybody tells me what i cant do