Soil moisture monitoring
Using Adcon equipment we have developed systems, which we have called Soil Moisture Stations (SMS). These are equivalent to automatic weather stations but measure soil moisture conditions. The SMS can be configured with a number of different sensors depending on customer preference and on the exact application.
A typical SMS will support the following sensors -
- One or two sets of Electrotensiometers, up to 3 sensors per set
- One or two Delta-T Profile Probes
- A rain sensor, which provides rainfall and applied irrigation quantity and duration data.
With such an open system, soil temperature, water level, humidity and air temperature sensors can be readily added.
The SMS host computer can also automatically control drip, trickle and spray irrigation. Automated data collection and processing enables the use of alarm systems which alert the user of the need to irrigate. These are sent to pagers or mobile phones.
Users of continuous reading soil moisture devices report improved results in crop quality and value, together with economy of water usage.
