Smart Soil Sensors

Overview

Smart Soil Sensors are multi-depth, in-ground capacitive probes that continuously measure volumetric water content, electrical conductivity (EC), pH, NPK nutrients and soil temperature at up to four root-zone depths — typically 10, 30, 60 and 90 cm — and stream the data over LoRaWAN or NB-IoT to a cloud agronomy dashboard.

Built for row-crop, orchard, vineyard and high-value horticulture operators who want to stop guessing when and how much to irrigate or fertilize. Each probe sits invisibly in the field, runs for 5–7 years on a single Li-SOCl₂ battery, and turns the root zone into a live, visible chart you can act on from a phone.

Multi-depth profile — see exactly where moisture is, where roots are pulling, and where water is wasted to deep percolation
Six measurands per probe — moisture, EC, pH, N, P, K plus soil temperature, with optional dielectric permittivity
Agronomy-grade calibration — factory-calibrated to soil type (sandy, loam, clay, organic), field-recalibration kit included
Outcome you can quote — typical 20–35% water savings and 10–18% fertilizer reduction in the first season

How It Works

The diagram above shows the four layers of a Smart Soil Sensors deployment. Hover any module to see the live telemetry it produces.

In-Ground Probe — a stainless-steel shaft is augered into the field; sensing rings at 10/30/60/90 cm read moisture, EC, pH, NPK and temperature every 15 minutes. A radio head sits above ground with a small solar trickle option.
Root-Zone Profile — readings are stacked into a depth-vs-moisture chart and compared against field capacity, refill point and the FAO-56 ET₀/K_c water-balance model to produce irrigation and fertigation advisories.
Cloud Dashboard — every probe across every field rolls up into a single map view with traffic-light status, 30-day trends, anomaly flags (e.g. salinity rising in zone S5), CSV/Parquet export and REST/MQTT APIs.
Farmer & Advisory — push and SMS alerts to the farm manager, optional agronomist-in-the-loop review, and one-tap actions that can directly trigger an attached irrigation controller.

A continuous feedback loop pushes calibration corrections, updated irrigation setpoints and firmware back to the probes — visible as the purple stream along the bottom of the diagram.

Features

4 sensing depths per probe — configurable spacing for shallow vegetable beds or deep-rooted tree crops
NPK + pH + EC in a single shaft — no separate ion-selective hardware to maintain
FAO-56 water-balance engine — combines probe data with on-farm or public weather to recommend irrigation depth and timing
Salinity drift detection — early-warning when EC trends upward across the season
Soil-type profiles — pre-loaded curves for sandy, loam, clay, peat / organic substrates
Long battery life — 5–7 years typical on Li-SOCl₂; optional 1 W solar trickle
Edge buffering — 30 days of local storage if the network is unreachable
Open integrations — pushes setpoints to John Deere, Valley, Netafim, Galcon, Hunter and SGT controllers

Use Cases

Row crops — corn, soy, cotton, sugarcane: variable-rate irrigation by management zone
Orchards & vineyards — track water stress (RDI) for fruit quality and wine grape style
High-value horticulture — strawberry, tomato, leafy greens: precise fertigation
Research & trials — agronomy R&D plots with auditable per-plot data export
Salinity-prone regions — coastal and arid zones where EC management is the key constraint
Compliance / sustainability — document water-use efficiency for ESG and supply-chain audits

Specifications

Measurements: volumetric water content (0–60%, ±2%), temperature (−20 to +60 °C, ±0.3 °C), EC (0–10 mS/cm, ±5%), pH (3–10, ±0.1), N/P/K (0–200 ppm, ±10%)
Depths: 4 sensing rings, standard 10/30/60/90 cm; custom spacing 5–120 cm on request
Sampling: 15-minute default, configurable 1–60 min, event-based on rain
Connectivity: LoRaWAN (primary), NB-IoT / LTE-M (cellular variant), Wi-Fi for greenhouses
Power: 3.6 V Li-SOCl₂ D-cell, 5–7 yr typical; optional 1 W solar + supercap
Construction: 316L stainless shaft, food-grade epoxy potting, IP68 to 2 m, −30 to +70 °C operating
Range: LoRa 8–12 km line-of-sight, 1–3 km in tall crop canopy
Certifications: CE, FCC, RoHS, IP68; field calibration traceable to gravimetric reference