what is water holding capacity?
Answers:
refers to the water holding capacity of soil. clay=holds a lot of water and sand=holds very little water
Other answers:
The maximum amount of space in an object that can hold the water.
The maximum amount of space in an object that can hold the water.
Water holding capacity refers to the amount of water soil can hold per a specified volume.
Clay soils normally hold a lot of water, but a lot of that water the plant can't get to because of how the clay holds the water. It has micropores that hold water but are too small for the roots to use.
Soils with a lot of organic material tend to be the best, they hold a lot of water but the plants can actually get to the soil.
Of course the more rocky or sandy the soil is, the less water holding capacity the soil has.
The more water capacity soil has, the slower it will be to dry out. And normally, the better ability it has to hold nutrients. The CEC of the soil is the best indicator though of a soils ability to hold nutrients.
I took soil science at Purdue University. A good soil reference book is Fundamentals of Soil Science by Henry D. Foth. It's the same book I used in my soil science class at Purdue.