Poor Soil Drainage:


Although the general thinking about soil is that it is a rather solid substance, it is actually composed of liquid and air spaces as also solid materials. But the solids make up only about 50% of the soil by volume, most of which is rock material that has been broken down by the action of heat, water and wind into particles of various sizes. A small portion of the solid materials (around 2 to 10%) is made up of organic materials, which is or was alive. While most of this generally consists of decayed vegetation, the organic portion of the soil also consists of many microorganisms like bacteria and fungi, earthworms, insects as also the occasional small animal.

What Makes Adequate Soil Drainage Important And Necessary?
In between the small sized solid particles are air, or "pore" spaces. At favorable levels of moisture, half of the total pore space contains air while the remaining contains water. After irrigation or rain, at the time when the soil is saturated with water, there is little or no air left in the pore space. In case the drainage is poor, this condition will continue and will deprive the plant roots in the soil of oxygen and thereby harm the plants. This explains why adequate and proper drainage is important to good plant growth. Poor drainage is indicated by a mottled grey color of the soil, continuously wet soil, or water "sitting" on the soil surface for a long time after rains or after irrigation.

Remedial Action That Needs To Be Taken For Poor Soil Drainage -
For improving drainage, ditches may be dug to drain away the excess of moisture. Here, raised beds can also be constructed. These can be 30 to 60 cm high and can consist of topmost layer soil with perhaps some soil amendments. Alternatively, raised beds can be built with sides of wood, stone, concrete blocks, or old even railway ties (from which preservative chemicals have been leached). Raised beds have good drainage. They also warm up quickly in the spring. Sub-surface ceramic drainage tiles, which were once widely recommended for improving drainage, are now usually considered prohibitively expensive.

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