Pretty sure deer can jump over that fence.
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Soil Moisture Monitoring
When to water, how much to water, how long to water, were questions that kept coming back to me as I contemplated the best ways to care for the young orchard. I read about everything from âjust feel the soilâ, to learning about probably every instrument ever made for measuring the moisture in soil.
The Geek in Me
Coming from a career in technology, I felt it couldnât be too difficult. I realize that for some of you a garden hose is good enough, and I agree it is. While âjust feel the soilâ is fine, I personally needed more to satisfy my inner technologist. I wanted something that could continuously measure and monitor the soil moisture at various depths. I wanted to keep a record and analyze the data over various temperatures, watering durations, types and depths of mulches, etc. I wanted text & email alerts when things were out of normal, etc. Yes, I wanted to geek a bit.
I found a solution that is relatively inexpensive and meets all of my criteria. Itâs from Vegetronix (no association) and consists of soil moisture sensors which measure volumetric water content as a percentage, and a wifi hub which sends the data to a cloud service for storage, reporting, and alerting. There is an ability to directly control irrigation valves & pumps, etc.
When I first got started with soil moisture measurement, I put soil mixed with water of different percentages into a glass jar. What did 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% volumeric water content (VWC) feel like? It was simple to then measure the VMC of each mixture and relate that percentage to how it looked and felt to the touch.
I now keep the live report below to check on my phone at a glace anytime Iâd like.
When I first installed the soil moisture sensors, I did not have any mulch/woodchip around my trees. The initial moisture spike is an irrigation event. You can see how the soil moisture then dropped and varied over time during the day & night.
After placing woodchip around the trees the soil moisture was much more consistent as shown below.
Itâs been interesting to see the lag in time between irrigation / rain and how that translates to soil moisture at different depths. How air temperature effects soil moisture over time, how the soil saturates and then levels out over time.
Does any of this matter? Probably not, but it fills the time until I can begin tasting the fruit of this little forest.
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