Landscape Maintenance - Wetting Agents
About Wetting Agents
Introduction
There are many wonderful products on the market nowadays to benefit all applications of gardens that feature flowers, plants, trees, shrubs and turf. Each product is specially produced to assist home gardeners in every aspect of maintaining and protecting new gardens and also established gardens. One of the remarkable garden products is a wetting agent product. This particular product is available in a granular formula as well as a liquid formula. A wetting agent application on landscaped gardens has many benefits and advantages for home owners to consider. Most home gardens feature some type of mulching throughout their landscaped gardens which is a great idea for water absorption in the soil.
One of the problems that mulching can have is during the warmer months of the year, or during drought affected areas, where the mulching dries out. This can affect the gardens as the water evaporates due to humidity as the air dries out the present mulching. Another cause is the chemicals and other organic media in the mulching becomes water repellent and it makes it difficult for the water to soak through to the soil. How do Wetting Agents Benefit Landscaped Gardens?
One of the main benefits of applying a wetting agent product in your landscaped gardens and turf locations is the agent provides a film to the surface of the soil. What the film does is let the water infiltrate the soil freely and uniformly for days and even weeks. The best outcome for this product to work effectively is to apply the wetting agent prior to watering the gardens so the films that are produced by a wetting agent has time to settle in on the surface of the soil pores and eventually filtering to the bottom of the soil. Hydrophobic Soils
There are number of soils that are more likely to become hydrophobic and require some type of a wetting agent product to resolve the water repellent problem that might be occurring and hence effecting your gardens to grow beautifully and healthy. If you have the following soil types in your landscaped gardens with or without some type of mulching presence, consider applying a wetting agent product to ensure your gardens will always thrive due to the soil being wet all the time.
- Sandy soils
- Soil with high organic matter
- Potting mixes
What can happen when watering these types of soils by a garden hose is the water does not get absorbed in to the soil pores and eventually it evaporates. You might think you have given you gardens a good soaking but in fact you haven’t as the water has not penetrated through to benefit the soil because hydrophobic soils have much like a waxy substance. The Main Three Causes of Water Repellence in Garden Applications
There are three factors that causes water repellence that affects gardens and turf applications. They comprise of the following:
- Gravity
- Cohesion
- Adhesion
These three causes to water repellence in garden soils all act individually that causes water not to penetrate through to the garden soil.
