Glossary: Lawn and Garden Management

These terms may help you make more accurate assessments when completing the Lawn and Garden Management Fact/Worksheet. They may also help clarify some of the terms used.

Available water capacity: The capacity of the soil to store water available for plant use, usually expressed in linear depths of water per unit depth of soil. Commonly defined as the difference between the percentage of soil water at field capacity and the percentage at wilting point.

Fertilizer: A substance that is added to soil to increase the nutrient content of a soil.

Field capacity: The percentage of water remaining in a soil two or three days after having been saturated and after free drainage has practically ceased.

Herbicides: A pesticide that is used to manage weeds.

Insecticides: A pesticide that is used to manage insects.

Irrigation water management: The use and management of irrigation water where the quantities of water used for each irrigation is determined by available water capacity of the soil and the need for the crop, and where the water is applied at a rate and in such a manner that the crop can use it efficiently and significant erosion does not occur.

Leachability: The ease with which a chemical is dissolved by water. The more readily a chemical is dissolved by water, the more readily it can be move in the subsurface and contaminate ground water.

Leaching: The removal from the soil in solution of the more soluble materials by percolating
water.

Nematocides: A pesticide that is used to manage nematodes.

Organic fertilizer: Fertilizers that are derived from natural sources, such as oceans, rocks, animal by-products, or plants and release their nutrients over a long period of time (6 months to 5 years).

Pesticides: A substance used to manage plant disease, insects, weeds, or rodents.

Rodenticides: A pesticide that is used to manage rodents.

Synthetic fertilizer: Fertilizers that are manufactured and release their nutrients over a very short period of time.

Wilting point: The moisture content of soil, on an oven-dry basis, at which plants (specifically sunflower plants) wilt and fail to recover their turgidity when placed in a dark, humid atmosphere.