LABORATORY EXERCISE NO.

1
Title: Determination of the Wilting Point of the Soil

I INTRODUCTION
Knowing the wilting point of the soil or of the crop is like knowing their limitations.
Wilting point of the soil is the point when the plant’s roots can no longer extract the
water in the soil because the available water left in the soil is hard to reach no matter how
the plant tries. It is also the minimum soil moisture required by the plant so it will not result
to wilting or withering. There are two ways how can a plant wilt; it is either by lack of water
or by overwatering it.
Plants that wilt due to lack of water is generally affected by extreme heat or
temperature causing water on or near the surface of the soil to evaporate. When the
plant’s roots are trying to use pressure ranging from 15 bars or higher, this means that it
is experiencing difficulty to extract water for its own. The available water is too deep or
hard to reach at this point.
Plants that wilt due to overwatering mainly happens when precipitation occurs at
a long duration or at high frequency. Water is filling every pore spaces present in the soil.
This phenomenon creates no room for oxygen to fill in. The plant will eventually die if it
has no access with oxygen. That is why knowing the balanced number of macropores
and micropores for the soil is important before planting to avoid wilting.
Wilting point of soil is easily identified by knowing the type of the soil. Sandy soils
have the higher tendency to cause plants to wilt easily due to the fact that it cannot hold
water in a longer period of time. Clayey soil is not also a good type because it can cause
immediate wilting due to its smaller pore spaces. The water can either be blocked and
not to infiltrate or be retained in the soil’s pore spaces for too long.

II. OBJECTIVE
To learn how to determine the wilting point of the soil.

III. MATERIALS & EQUIPMENT

Corn seeds, soil, container for planting, weighing balance, soil oven

IV. PROCEDURE

1. We provided four empty milk cans to serve as soil container. We put holes at
the bottom of each can to serve as drainage of excess water that was applied.
2. We collected soil samples from the field and placed them in the four empty milk
cans.
3. We sow three (3) to five (5) kernels of corn in each can at a depth of about one
(cm) below the soil surface.
4. We applied water into the container of soil until water is seen dripping from the
bottom of each can.
5. We placed the container under the sun to allow to corn to grow normally.
6. If after five days and no plant had emerged, we will repeat procedures 3-5 until
corn plants had successfully grown.
 7. We applied water into the soil if it is still necessary until the plants had grown
four leaves.
8. When the four-leaf stage of the plant was reached, we allowed them to die
naturally under the sun by not applying water anymore.
9. When the leaves of the plants had turned brown, we placed the plants under
the shade for two days.
10. After two days that the plants are under the shade, we placed them back under
the sun and observed if they could still recover. The brown leaves will turn
greenish again if the plants can recover from temporary wilting.
11. If the brown color of the leaves did not change after two days of allowing the
plants to recover under the sun, then the wilting point of the soil was reached.
12. We uprooted the plants (including the roots) from the soil in each container and
determined the fresh weight of the soil in each container by using a weighing
balance.
13. We oven-dried the soil samples for 12-24 hours at a temperature of about 105
oC.

14. After oven-drying, we determined the oven dry weight of each soil sample using
a weighing balance.
15. We computed the wilting point of the soil from each container using

WP = [(FW – OD)/OD] X 100

Where: WP = wilting point of the soil, %

FW = fresh weight of each soil sample, g
OD = oven dry weight of each soil sample, g

16. We determined the average wilting point of the soil by considering the wilting
point of each soil sample.
17. We documented our experiment.

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

We started the activity by preparing the milk cans that we have collected to serve
as planting pots for the corn. We put some holes under it so that excess water can move
out. Then, we started to put enough amount of soil in the can and eventually, we sow
three to four corn seeds in each cans.
 We also watered the plants at field capacity to at least moisten its growth
environment before placing it under the sun.

After five days, we went back to the Engineering Farm to check our plants and
found out that not all the seeds that we sowed have grown. Also, some plants have not
reached its four-leaf stage yet, so we decided not to put the plants yet under the shade.

After 24 hours, we went back again to the farm to monitor what had happened.
The can which have not shown any sprout yesterday have finally given life to one corn
plant. It may be late but it could be due to its growing environment or the seed may have
a hard coat.
 After some days, we finally decided to put the plants inside the greenhouse to
increase the temperature of the plants’ environment and eventually reach its wilting point.
After one week, we visited the plants and saw this situation.

After that, we’ve seen enough. We uprooted the plants and gathered the soils’
fresh weight. This is one of the factors needed to solve for the wilting point of soil.
 After getting the fresh weight, we have to determine also their oven dry weight. To
do this, we put the soil samples inside the oven for 24 hours.

We finally took the oven dry weight of the soil samples using a digital weighing
scale.

To ease the analysis of data, we created a simple table as shown below.

SOIL SAMPLE FRESH WEIGHT – OVEN DRY WEIGHT –

FW (g) ODW (g)
Soil Sample 1 438 352
Soil Sample 2 439 371
Soil Sample 3 434 366
Soil Sample 4 438 377

As stated above, we have to solve for the soil wilting point. We used the formula
for gravimetric determination of the wilting point of the soil.
𝐹𝑊−𝑂𝐷𝑊
𝑊𝑃 = × 100
𝑂𝐷𝑊

For the soil sample 1, we have,

438 − 352
𝑊𝑃 1 = × 100 = 24.43 %
352

For soil sample 2, we have,

439 − 371
𝑊𝑃 2 = × 100 = 18.33%
371
 For soil sample 3, we have,

434 − 366
𝑊𝑃 3 = × 100 = 18.58 %
366

For soil sample 4, we have,

438 − 377
𝑊𝑃 4 = × 100 = 16. 18 %
377

VI. CONCLUSION
In this laboratory exercise about soil wilting point, we were able to carry out all the
necessary procedures and accomplished all the given objectives on time.
Determining the soil wilting point before starting upon soil cultivation is very
important. It is like knowing the limitation of your soil. Being aware of your soil wilting point
is a key upon monitoring the amount of moisture present in the soil and when creating
your irrigation schedule.
During the experiment, we did not expect that it will take almost a week before our
plants reach their four-leaf stage. Also, many of the seeds that were sown in the milk cans
were not able to grow immediately, while some really haven’t shown at all. These things
happened maybe because the coats of the seed are hard, or the seeds have defects
inside, causing them not to grow. We tried to wait, but still, nothing happened.
Therefore, we can conclude that choosing your seeds will also be an important
factor to finish this exercise on point and on time.
Another factor is the area where we placed the cans containing the plants. At first,
after we have sown them, the location was just beside a strait. Their sides are covered
from the sun’s direct sunlight, though maybe at some point in the day, the plants can still
receive direct sunshine. Also, when we were already observing the plants to reach its
wilting point the area was not completely isolated from rain or other external factors except
temperature.
Therefore, we can conclude that selecting the area to conduct all the steps will
also affect the experiment. If necessary, isolate the plants completely.
VII. PROBLEMS

1. Rank the wilting point of the following soil textures with 1 as the highest and 5
as the lowest wilting point: Sandy, Clay, loam, clay loam, sandy loam.
2. The soil moisture at field capacity and wilting point are 27.2% and 12.5%,
respectively. The soil apparent specific gravity is 1.4 and the depth of soil being
considered is 30 cm.
a. Determine the available moisture of the soil in cm.
b. Determine the wilting point of the soil in cm.
3. Convert the following to bar:
a. 45 inHg
b. 60 mmHg
c. -15 to – 40 atm
 d. 85 psi

(The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as 101325

Pa (1.01325 bar), equivalent to 760 mmHg (torr), 29.92 inHg and 14.696 psi.)

VIII. REFERENCES
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• http://www.onfarm.com