Using Researcher Built Soil Moisture Sensors for Irrigation and Dryland Research.

Increasing demand and use of water in the western United States has been linked to lowering aquifer levels. Most irrigation water in the western US is sourced from aquifers. To mitigate lower water availability while sustaining yields many agriculture operations have turned to dryland practices. This experiment aims to quantify soil moisture measurement accuracy using open source technology across different water management scenarios. “Tindie IC2 soil moisture sensors” were deployed across a randomized complete block with three treatments. Treatments included, irrigated land in production, non-irrigated production, and grassland as the control at multiple depths. The objective of this research is the quantify precision and accuracy of I2C moisture sensors compared to gravimetric measures.