Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks for Irrigation and Nutrient Management in Nursery and Greenhouse Operations
Abstract
Concerns over drought and water availability from groundwater or surface reservoirs, water quality, nutrient and chemical runoff, capture and recycling issues and various local, state and federal regulations all are focusing us in one way or another on the quantity and quality of water that will be available for ornamental plant production in the future. Almost all growers have some issues with water management, but oftentimes the most basic question is – do I need to irrigate today? While this question could seem trivial, plant water requirements vary by species, season and microclimate, and depend upon any number of environmental and plant developmental factors that need to be integrated on a day-to-day basis. Effective daily irrigation decisions take time and the irrigation manager often faces complex decisions about scheduling that require the integration of knowledge at many levels. Irrigation management is therefore one of the most complicated tasks in a nursery operation, particularly when water is limiting. Ideally, this should be combined with real-time sensing of nutrient concentrations in the root zone, by measuring electrical conductivity (EC). Our goal is to enable the automation of this task by using wide area networks of soil moisture and EC sensors.
BibTeX
@conference{Lea-Cox-2009-10159,author = {John D. Lea-Cox and Andrew G. Ristvey and David S. Ross and George A. Kantor},
title = {Deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks for Irrigation and Nutrient Management in Nursery and Greenhouse Operations},
booktitle = {Proceedings of Southern Nursery Association Research Conference},
year = {2009},
month = {May},
volume = {54},
pages = {28 - 34},
keywords = {sensor networks, field, soil, soilless, container, water, matric potential, Decagon, Ech20},
}