Wilting point
The minimum level of soil moisture required for a plant to not wilt, below which the plant cannot recover and will permanently wither.
Также говорят: permanent wilting point, wilting percentage
The wilting point acts as the lower boundary of plant-available water. It is essential for irrigation management to ensure that soil moisture levels remain well above this threshold to avoid crop failure due to drought stress.
Agronomists monitor this parameter to determine when to initiate irrigation cycles. Since water is held tightly by soil particles at this stage, it becomes inaccessible to plant roots, regardless of the absolute amount of water remaining in the soil matrix.
A common mistake is failing to adjust moisture targets based on soil texture. Clay soils hold much more water at the wilting point than sandy soils, which can lead to miscalculations in irrigation scheduling if not accounted for during water balance modeling.