Reliable and accurate measuring instrument

Yes, your historical data remains safely stored in Log & Solve. You can create new crop tabs yourself, and compare older crops with your current crop. These features are currently under development.

A soil moisture sensor is a device that measures the amount of moisture in the soil. They can help determine how much water is available to plants.

A moisture sensor measures the volumetric moisture content. It determines how much % of the pot volume is filled with water. The rest is solids and air. There are different types of soil moisture sensors, but most work on the principle that water conducts electricity. They use electrical resistance measurements to determine the water content.

Knowledge of soil moisture levels can help growers make informed decisions about when and how much to water their plants. This avoids sharp swings between wet and dry, meaning the plant experiences fewer stress moments. Preventing pots from over-drying increases the efficiency of watering; better water uptake, more uniformity.

We recommend placing one soil moisture sensor per 200m2 and at least 3 in a cultivation lot. You can also decide how many pots you always look at yourself to determine whether to water. If you look at 10 pots in a lot, we recommend 10 sensors.

It is not necessary to place a sensor in all lots. Choose a representative lot that is comparable for the surrounding crops. If your crops are too different, multiple sensors in multiple lots may be an option.

Place soil moisture sensors in the area you normally check before watering. Or place sensors in each quadrant of the growing lot. And consider placing a few extra sensors in areas of historically high or low moisture.

Upon delivery of the sensors, you will receive instructions on how to properly place the sensors. Place the sensors at a consistent depth, preferably at the depth of the root zone. Insert the sensor straight into the soil (vertically). Make sure the entire electrode makes contact with the potting soil and avoid sloping placement.

The sensors are very accurate with a very small deviation. The deviations that can occur are often caused by external conditions. These include:

• Too much air/space between substrate and sensor probe.
• Pot temperature is very high
• Sensor is too long for the pot used
• Piece of non-substrate against the measuring area such as a pebble or a piece of wood.

The sensors connect to the Sigfox network, which has good coverage in the Netherlands. The global 0G network is a low power wide area network.

The connection to the sensor is wireless and therefore not wired. With a wired sensor, we expect a continuous line to appear in a graph. With a wireless sensor, small so-called hiccups can always occur just like this can happen with the GSM network. Where in a telephone conversation a pronounced word in a sentence briefly drops out. This can also occur in your sensor graph. If your sensors give too many hiccups, we can sometimes strengthen the signal using another antenna or gateway.

Immediately after potting, the substrate in the pot is not yet set and compacted. The best time to place the sensor is after the pot has been watered at least once after potting. This ensures better contact between sensor and substrate. For outdoor crops, this applies to situations where the soil has just been worked, so reliable measurements start after the first rain / irrigation. For substrate mats / growbags in vegetable cultivation, this applies to situations before the first full drip. For reliable measurements from the sensors, the mats must be well saturated with water.