Evaluating the suitability of a new telemetric capacitance-based measurement system for real-time application in irrigation and fertilization management

Abstract

The suitability of a new wireless smart farming system for controlling irrigation and fertilization of horticultural plants was assessed in the study. The system (name: AGREUS®) includes sensors (soil moisture, salinity, weather data), executive modules (valve modules), and an application available on the web portal (accessed through computers and mobile devices). The studies were performed under laboratory and field conditions. Laboratory tests included appraisal of the precision of soil moisture and salinity measurements carried out with the soil probe (comparison with the results obtained by laboratory methods). Operational tests were conducted in field trials. In these trials, assessment of the possibility of practical control of irrigation and monitoring soil salinity was performed in an apple orchard. The conducted analyses have shown the usefulness of the system, not only for automatic control of irrigation but also for making decisions about the necessity to fertilize plants. The system enables continuous monitoring of changes in soil moisture and salinity, including the migration of minerals across the soil profile (using a probe with several measuring elements) as a result of the applied irrigation or rainfall. The system allows for automatic application of irrigation or fertigation depending on the adopted soil moisture and salinity thresholds. However, the tests showed that a salinity index calculated by the system does not directly correspond to the salinity values determined by laboratory methods. For this reason individual interpretation and determination of optimal ranges for plants is required.