After incorporation into soil SANOPLANT should be saturated immediately. This is no additionaly effort and is usually done after planting/seeding. The granulate separates immediately into the original very small particles with a size of only few micrometers. To ensure proper separation the granules also contain a small amount of carbon compounds such as e.g. special fibre cellulose. The fine particles are pushed into available air pores and reduce the size of these pores. Surface area in the soil is increased. Water holding tension is increased which means capillary porosity is increased.

Advantage of SANOPLANT is:

• significantly less material is required to achieve improved water retention (similar to heavy soils).
• the good pyhsically characters of sandy soils or well aerated substrates are only minimally influenced by SANOPLANT
• water is held at plant-available tension which is different to loam. e.g. Heavy soils have a significant part of "Dead water" or non plant-available water

Following pyhsical characteristics have to be observed in order to evaluate capabilities of soil:

1. Total pore volume (= Field capacity)
2. Capillary porosity or water retention (= usable field capacity)
3. Air porosity
4. Hydraulic conductivity

Total pore volume cannot be changed. Only with big effort e.g. transporting and handling large quantities of filling material like sand,pumice, tuff, lava granules etc. this characteristic can be changed.

In sandy soils it is especially the plant available water retention, capillary porosity, which should be improved.

Improvement should not reduce air porosity too much, as roots require a good ratio of nutients, water and air.

Hydraulic conductivity should not be too low because when high rainfall occurs or excessive irrigation quantities are applied the water can not percolate sufficiently. Result is that roots start to rot under these anaerobic conditions.

SANOPLANT treated soil absorbs water and nutrients very rapidly and releases them as required to the plants.
Saved water and nutrients are available to the plants over a long time period.

Function principle is described in the diagram below:

Schema is describing a soil particle. The soil particle is surrounded by bound or dead water, under very high pressure and thus not available for plants. Dead water is surrounded by the plant-available water layer. In this layer water is kept with a pressure of 0,3 - 15 bar (= permanent wilting point), also referred to as Usable Field Capacity. SANOPLANT improves water retention particularly in this pressure range and increases the plant-available water quantity by decreasing partly the quantity of drainage water.
Nevertheless sufficient drainage is ensured with SANOPLANT. Nutrients in the water are held and kept available to the plants.

How to use SANOPLANT?
SANOPLANT is mixed into the entire root zone. Material can be spread homogenously on the surface and afterwards worked into the soil using suitable machinery such as rotary motor hoe, plough or digger.
During premixing of soils or substrates SANOPLANT can be mixed in at the same time.

For planting of big trees SANOPLANT can be mixed into the layer beneath the root ball of the tree. Thus roots will grow into deeper layers and are not exposed to the possible droughts at higher levels.

SANOPLANT can be used for all types of soils and plants. Best results for water saving, minimum 50% or more compared to usual quantities, can be achieved in sandy soils.