THE AVAILABILITY OF WATER IN PEAT SOILS

Water is an important factor of plant production. The amount and the availability of soil moisture are very important points of land value. Moreover a dynamical valuation (availability) is more important than a statical valuation (amount of soil water). In both cases peat soils are favoured when compared with mineral soils.

Under natural conditions the water content of peat soils is very high. Therefore these soils must be drained to avoid deficiencies of aeration, microbial activity, uptake of plant nutrients, capacity of holding nutrients, and productivity (1). Even well drained peat soils retain a high water content.

The field capacity of light soils and the permeability of heavy, sticky soils are improved by peat (2). The physical and chemical properties of peat are very important for its use in horticulture. Measurements of soil moisture tension (pF), satured (Kf) and unsaturated (Ku) flow of water in peat soils show some advantages of plant growing on such substrates (3). Since Briggs and Shantz (4) it is an aim of botanists and soil scientists to confirm previous investigated physical soil conditions of water utilization by plants. This paper contributes some results to this question.