Soil Moisture Monitoring System - Use your water wisely!
Water is the single most important requirement for your crops.
It is important to apply the right amount of water at the right time.
It has been demonstrated beyond doubt that effective soil moisture control techniques can generate considerable improvements in yields. Department of Agriculture reports show yield increases.
Soil moisture control will give huge increased profits with very little investment. The Soilspec Tensiometer System is an easy to use, accurate and low cost measuring system which will allow you to make informed and accurate decisions about your irrigation.
Soilspec can help you achieve maximum yields and profits and is:
- Easy to use and understand
- Inexpensive tensiometer tubes
- No calibration required
- Extremely accurate and Environmentally beneficial.
The Soilspec tensiometer system is used as a research tool by various Agriculture departments, universities and the CSIRO.
HOW IT WORKS
As the soil dries out, the surface tension of the moisture in the surrounding soil attempts to draw the water out of the tube through the porous ceramic tip. However, because the tube is sealed with a rubber stopper, the water cannot escape. This creates a suction in the air space at the top of the tube. When irrigation or rainfall occurs, the suctions decreases. A high vacuum or suction reading on the gauge indicates that the soil is dry at around the ceramic tip, and a low reading shows that the soil is moist.
In general a complete monitoring system will consist of a number of monitoring sites around the area to be irrigated. Each site would have two or three tubes of different lengths (see fig1), situated at the top, middle and bottom of the root zone. This not only allows the monitoring of soil moisture at a number of depths at each site, but also shows, from the graphs, the movement of the moisture through the soil during the irrigation cycle.
The Soilspec system requires very little maintenance and will provide years of reliable service. The electronic gauge requires no periodic calibration or zeroing prior to use. Tensiometers in the field are read and the results recorded regularly. The figures from each tensiometer tube are then graphed to provide a picture of soil moisture.
