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AWC and Top Soil Addition

#1

Been trying to nail down my settings for my flex daily setup. I live in Port Jefferson Station, NY (Long Island) and as per the Web Soil Survey, I have set my soil type as Sandy Loam and the AWC as 0.08.

My house is new construction and the contractor had stripped the top soil layer before building and then spread it back over again. Additionally, the landscaper brought it another 2-3 inches of screened topsoil.

So my question is… should i set my soil type to Topsoil and my AWC to something like .12 or should I leave it as is. It seems like the lower AWC and the sandy loam setting wants to water a little less but more frequenty - kind of negating the “long and infrequent” advice for root growth.

#2

I’m no expert at this, but I think I would start out with the .12 setting and see how it goes. I have mostly Enon Sandy Loam, and the WSS shows that at .13 - mine was checked using the soil depth down to 8 inches.

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#3

I would go with the 0.12 also, then observe. The lower the AWC is, the faster you are telling the system that water flows thru your soil. So the time it waters is less since water gets down faster, AND it waters more frequestly because the soil will become dry a lot faster.

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#4

I’m being pedantic Modawg, but the lower your awc, the less amount of water your soil column can hold. Not really how fast it moves, more like a cup, I can continue to pour a gallon of water into an 8 oz cup, but after 8 oz, I’m just wasting/discarding that additional water.