Soil water storage properties

Recommended values for porosity, field capacity and wilting point for different soils.¹
Link to this table.

Soil	Porosity 2 (volume/volume)	Field capacity (volume/volume)	Wilting point (volume/volume)	Porosity minus field capacity (volume/volume)3	Field capacity minus wilting point (volume/volume)4
Sand	0.43	0.17	0.025 to 0.09	0.26	0.11
Loamy sand	0.44	0.09	0.04	0.35	0.05
Sandy loam	0.45	0.14	0.05	0.31	0.09
Loam	0.47	0.25 to 0.32	0.09 to 0.15	0.19	0.16
Silt loam	0.50	0.28	0.11	0.22	0.17
Sandy clay loam	0.4		0.07
Clay loam	0.46	0.32	0.15	0.14	0.17
Silty clay loam	0.47 to 0.51	0.30 to 0.37	0.17 to 0.22	0.16	0.14
Sandy clay	0.43		0.11
Silty clay	0.47		0.05
Clay	0.47	0.32	0.20	0.15	0.12

¹Sources of information include Saxton and Rawls (2006), Cornell University, USDA-NIFA, Minnesota Stormwater Manual
²Soil saturation is assumed to be equal to the porosity.
³This value may be used to represent the volume of water that will drain from a bioretention media.
⁴This value may be used to estimate the amount of water available for evapotranspiration