It’s always seemed to me like we have a water storage problem, rather than a drought problem, here on the island.  Ask any permaculturalist or regenerative farmer the best way to store water and they will tell you, hands down, that it’s in the soil.  

Storing water this way requires good soil structure, and for that we rely on beneficial (“aerobic”) soil organisms.  Bacteria glue themselves to organic matter and other bits and pieces, forming micro aggregates.  Along comes the fungi, weaving and gluing and pulling these microaggregates into larger aggregates.  Pore spaces, airways and passageways are created, forming a sponge-like structure something akin to chocolate cake.  Billions of microbes go about their daily business here, with roots easily accessing the water stored within this giant sponge.  

Out at the Hope Farm corn experiment, we used water infiltration testing as one way to look at changes in soil structure with various management techniques.  You can measure your own baseline too, and repeat periodically to see if water is sinking in faster over time.  If so, congratulations, you are regenerating your soil and increasing your yields!  If not, then you are likely short on beneficial microbes. 

Here’s how:

Step 1

Take a tube 6 inches in diameter and 6 inches long, ideally a piece of metal pipe with one edge sharpened.  But you could use PVC pipe, or even a 1 gallon pot if compaction isn’t an issue.

Step 2

Pop a piece of wood over top and use a mallet to drive it 4 inches deep into the soil 

Step 3

Lay some recycled plastic on the soil surface, edges coming up and out of the tube.  Add 1 inch of water (or pour in 450ml), then gently pull out the plastic and start timing

Step 4

Time until the last of the water disappears into the soil

Step 5

Repeat steps 3 and 4 twice more.  The first inch is to wet your soil, the second inch is your likely measurement, and the third can be your reading if your soil is very dry.  If infiltration takes longer than 12.5 minutes, call me… run-off problems and evaporation of precious rainfall is imminent!