The warmer days and relentless wind mean that water loss through evapotranspiration (ET) has exceeded rainfall the past month. That means irrigation season is upon us to ensure the trees have sufficient water to grow an excellent crop.
Irrigation monitoring is important for knowing how much water is available to the trees so that just the right amount of irrigation can be applied at the right time. There are a multitude of monitoring systems out there, but all soil moisture monitoring systems measure the water status within a very small zone around the probe. Plant water status systems similarly measure the water stress status of a single plant per sensor. Therefore, it is important that monitoring probes are installed in representative areas and the information interpreted correctly.
This season AgFirst is offering real-time monitoring using the Crop-X system – the sensor provides constant soil moisture status that can be viewed on a platform that integrates with a number of other systems including weather forecasting and weather stations. The soil moisture data is further enhanced through satellite vegetation index maps (updated multiple times a week). These maps show relative stress status of the block in relation to sensor placement so you can better predict water needs across the block.
Our existing manual soil probe service will continue to provide highly accurate snapshots of the soil moisture throughout the profile and allows for multiple sample points for the same cost as a single real-time sensor. In essence – the traditional monitoring system can provide a snapshot with better spatial resolution (across the orchard and down through the profile) whereas real-time sensors provide high temporal resolution of a single point in the orchard but are limited in how much information about what is happening throughout the soil profile.
Author info: Dr. Sean Gresham, Horticultural Consultant, AgFirst Consultants Hawke’s Bay Ltd. ph. 0274736015, email: sean.gresham@agfirst.co.nz
