The time of ponding in agricultural fields depends not just on the soil’s hydraulic properties but the crop as well, under both steady and unsteady rainfall conditions. An accurate estimation of the ponding time is required, as it gives information about when the soil surface saturated for the first time. The existing studies provide relationships for estimating the ponding time for different Gardener soils mainly based on their soil hydraulic properties. In this study, a comparison was done for the time of ponding obtained using other existing relationships in literature with that obtained using numerical simulation of the Richards equation. The comparison is made for both with and without root water uptake and different soil types and boundary conditions. The results showed that ponding time obtained using the numerical solution of Richards equation and other existing relationships differs considerably for silty loam soil.