EFFECT OF DIFFERENT WATER-CONTENT, SAMPLE NUMBER, AND SOIL TYPE ON DETERMINATION OF SOIL-WATER USING A HOME MICROWAVE-OVEN

Soil water content values determined on three soil types at three water contents using a home-type microwave oven were within 1% of the values obtained using a conventional electric oven to dry samples. Four 50-60 g soil samples of different type and different water content were fully dried in 20 min in the microwave oven, but 45 min was needed when with samples were increased from four to 12 regardless of three power settings (360-650 W). A major advantage of the microwave soil water determination over the conventional electric oven method is the greatly reduced time required for oven drying even with larger soil samples.