A numerical model, based on the transport equations for water and noninteracting solutes and written in IBM S/360 CSMP language, was designed to compute the radial movement of water and salts to plant roots. The inputs are: the soil's suction and conductivity functions, the soil solution's content and concentration, root density and permeability, and the required uptake rate (whether constant or diurnally fluctuating). The output provides the time-dependent drawdown of matric and osmotic potentials in the immediate vicinity of the root, the gradients and flow rates of water and solutes in the soil, and the plant water potentials needed to maintain different uptake rates. The model is illustrated for various rooting densities and various initial water contents and salt concentrations. The effect of increasing root density and permeability is seen to be similar to the effect of increasing water content or reducing transpirational demand.