– The soil water content (SWC) or soil moisture is the amount of water present in the soil. It influences plant growth, soil temperature, transport of chemicals and groundwater recharge.

– At first we have to label the aluminum crinkle dish with a sample name and determine the tare of the container.

 – ~10 g of soil sample is weighed into the container.  We are taking 3 replicates of the soil.

 – The sample is placed in the oven at 105 °C and kept for ~36 hours for drying.

– The sample is removed from the oven and placed in a desiccator in order to cool down to room temperature.

– Reweigh the samples and calculate the water content (mass basis) as a fraction of the mass of dry soil as follows: