Wireless Sensor Network for Soil Moisture Measurement.

Crop producers in the Mid-South U.S. have become increasingly reliant on supplemental irrigation to ensure adequate yields and reduce risks of production, but very few use any irrigation scheduling aids. There is a need to provide technical tools to producers for appropriate management of irrigation in the region. A wireless sensor network was deployed in a cotton field to monitor soil water status for irrigation. The network consists of soil volumetric water-content sensors, wireless data loggers, and a data station (Decagon Devices, Pullman, WA). Nine locations were selected in the field for soil moisture measurement. At each location, three soil-water sensors were respectively installed in depths of 15cm, 30cm, and 60cm below ground surface combining with one data logger. Sensors automatically measured soil water content and soil temperature in a time interval of one hour. Sensor data collected by each data logger were wirelessly transferred to and stored in the data station. Furthermore, the data were automatically uploaded from the data station into another data logger (Campbell Scientific, Logan, Utah), and then wirelessly transmitted onto the internet via a wireless module to make the soil-water-content data available online. Results in 2011 season indicated that the soil-water sensors were able to measure the soil water status, and the measurements recorded by the systems reflected general trends of soil water change during the growing season. Irrigated plots increased cotton yield by 12% compared with the non-irrigated. System installation and maintenance procedures developed worked well in general. Some installation and operational issues were found and need to be resolved for field operation and user acceptance.

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