Soil Texture Water Characteristics Lookup

Don't have a lab-measured field capacity or wilting point for a soil? Pick a soil texture below for planning-level estimates — useful for homework, quick irrigation scheduling estimates, or as a starting point before site-specific data is available.

Lookup

Soil texture

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Field capacity (θ_fc)

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Wilting point (θ_wp)

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Available water capacity (AWC)

Values are dimensionless volumetric water content (cm³/cm³, in/in, or m/m) — e.g. an AWC of 0.15 in/in means 0.15 inches of available water per inch of soil depth.

Use these values in the Irrigation Scheduling Calculator →

Reference: Table 2.3 — Example Soil Water Characteristics by Texture

Soil texture	θ_fc	θ_wp	AWC

Source: Table 2.3, Eisenhauer, Martin, Heeren, & Hoffman (2021), Irrigation Systems Management, ASABE. The textbook's own note applies: "Example values are given. You can expect considerable variation from these values within each soil texture." Use site-specific measurements when they're available.