The objectives of this experiment were to identify differences in the total quantity of water stored in soil, storing capacity of water available to the plants and in the water consumption of maize plants cultivated in soils of different textures. The experiment was conducted at the experimental area of the Rural Engineering Department of the Federal University of Santa Maria during the 1995/1996 growing season. A set of 12 drainage lysimeters was used. These were 156 cm long, 100 cm wide and 80 cm deep and were placed under a shelter to avoid rainfall. The treatments consisted of two soil water managements (irrigated and terminal soil water deficit applied during vegetative growth) of three soils with distinct textures: clayey, loamy and sandy. A completely randomized statistical design with two replications was used. The results indicated that the soil's water available to the plants was greater in the sandy soil (112 mm) than in the clayey (102 mm) and loamy (94 mm) soils. However, these values represented 44, 41 and 77% of the soil's total stored water capacity for the clayey, loamy and sandy soils, respectively. Considering a given soil depth, there was a greater availability of water to the maize plants for sandy soils than for clayey and loamy soils.
irrigation; water deficit; soil water; soil texture