New method simplifies soil evaluation, saving time and labor.
Saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil can be estimated using a simple method involving point source trickle irrigation. By measuring emitter discharge rate and steady saturated radius, researchers accurately predicted the basic infiltration rate. Field experiments on sandy and sandy loam soils showed that the predicted values were close to the measured values obtained in the lab. The method used was as accurate as other commonly used techniques for estimating saturated hydraulic conductivity.