Wireless soil monitoring for irrigation decisions

Soil-water tension describes how tightly water is held in the soil. Volumetric water content describes the volume of water relative to soil volume. They are not interchangeable readings, and a tension value alone is not a universal irrigation volume or percentage.

IRROMETER’s Watermark 200SS guide explains the sensor’s resistance-based tension measurement and conversion to kPa or centibars. Agri’s supported interface is for Watermark soil sensors; it does not establish support for every capacitive probe, EC/salinity sensor or weather station.

Agriculture Victoria’s device-selection guidance recommends choosing the information, installation and support around the operation. Use crop, soil, irrigation method, management practice and maintenance needs to choose the measurement.

Record the crop, soil differences, irrigation zones, emitter arrangement and active root zone before selecting sensor positions. Work with the responsible grower or agronomic adviser to choose representative locations and depths. Three sensor connections do not establish that one terminal represents every soil type or zone on a farm.

Compare trends across the selected depths and locations before and after irrigation. A deeper sensor may answer a different question from one near the surface; installation quality and the local soil affect interpretation. Use the sensor manufacturer’s preparation and installation instructions rather than guessing a planting depth from a generic guide.

Operators can enter coordinates or geotag devices during provisioning. That is a provisioning capability, not a claim that Agri has an onboard GPS receiver.

Agri uses four C alkaline cells, with the approved conservative claim of over one year of battery life. Its private LoRaWAN US915 connection carries readings and supported commands to the on-site Base Station. Verify the radio region, mounting, obstructions, hub power and maintenance access at your site; no universal distance guarantee is supplied here.

The Base Station runs dashboards, history and application Skills on site. Off-farm viewing requires a separately planned secure site-network connection. Local operation without vendor cloud is different from uninterrupted operation through a power, terminal or radio outage.

Check Agri sensors, power and valve requirements and review local records and recovery responsibilities.

1. Verify received sensor readings and agree how trends will be interpreted for the crop, soil and selected locations.
2. Agree watering targets and the commissioned Irrigation Intelligence guidance and automated-scheduling workflow.
3. Confirm the exact DC latching solenoid and valve requirements before using Agri’s open/close pulses.
4. Where success depends on delivered water, specify separate compatible pressure or flow feedback. A valve command is not proof of water reaching the crop.
5. Test manual operation, the agreed schedule and behavior during communication or power loss with the responsible site team.

Agri and Irrigation Intelligence are available now. Pump pressure and flow instrumentation can be reviewed with line-powered Indi; Agri is not a direct mains pump starter.

Download the blank irrigation monitoring plan (CSV). Record zones, crop and soil differences, chosen sensor depths, valve models, power, site connectivity and responsible reviewers. Select depths and watering targets with the grower or agronomic adviser; the worksheet supplies no universal crop threshold and uploads no field information.

Define success before installation: received readings at selected locations, usable history, radio coverage, compatible valve action, configured user access and the agreed schedule. Keep a dated record of maintenance, irrigation actions and observations.

If evaluating water use or crop outcomes, document the starting practice, measurement method, weather and operating changes. A pilot package or working dashboard does not itself establish a percentage saving or yield improvement. No agricultural customer outcome or savings figure is claimed here.

Review the itemized Agri pilot for hardware, installation limits, 90-day software scope, exclusions and service choices. Read current specifications before selecting accessories.

Review my soil monitoring and irrigation plan.

Compare tension-based sensing with other soil measurements and compare local hosting with managed cloud services. The sourced irrigation comparison distinguishes Modulink, WiseConn, FarmHQ, CropX and a ChirpStack-based architecture without treating them as identical products.