Development and Evaluation of a Cost Effective Plant Growth Media Moisture Sensor and Development of an Aqueous Data Transmission System for Irrigation Purposes

The ability to accurately monitor and transit the moisture content of soilless growing media in the rooting zone is critical for plant-based research, production of high value crops, and other agricultural production. The focus of this study is the development and evaluation of a cost effective moisture sensor designed to measure the plant-available moisture content of growing media and the development of a aqueous data transmission method for relaying this information back to a central location. While there are currently many commercially available soil moisture sensors on the market, the aim of this research is not to develop a more accurate sensor but to design a comparably capable sensor that is more cost effective for the end user to achieve a higher spatial resolution of their moisture measurement by incorporating more sensors over a given area. Traditional wired and wireless communication methods currently used in industry would require additional infrastructure to transmit this moisture data back to central local that adds to the cost of the system. The proposed aqueous data transmission system was designed to relay moisture sensor output utilizing the existing irrigation infrastructure for communication. This system, if commercialized, could improve currently employed automated irrigation for production systems by optimizing water management based on zone requirements, thereby increasing production efficiency while minimizing the potential for off-site movement of contaminates. Likewise, this low cost approach will allow a network of soil moisture sensors to address the spatial variation of moisture content within an area; thus permitting site-specific irrigation within a production area (field, greenhouse etc).