Moisture Retention Trials - Hosted By Spruced Nursery
Water retention experiment 1 - Single event watering
Moisture probes logging soil moisture at hourly intervals were placed at 50mm depth in 2 140mm pots with PotHeads applied and 2 140mm control pots. All pots contained Betula pendula (Silver Birch) seedlings of equal size. The pots were watered heavily to saturation on day 1 and then left in a sunny position to dry with no additional watering for the experimental duration of 8 days. The small peaks each day at dawn were attributed to two factors:
1. Overnight rehydration of growing media around the probe from deeper in the pots - likely by osmosis and action of the plant roots.
2. Rehydration peaks were higher in the PotHead group indicating additional return of moisture to the growing media via condensation in this group.
Overall, the control group exhibited a significantly faster drying rate than the PotHead group. This is attributable to the PotHead reducing evaporation by condensation recapture.
Water distribution was tested through the PotHead and pot