Why Monitoring Soil Moisture?
Monitoring soil moisture and other environmental soil variables is crucial for optimizing plant growth, conserving water resources, managing nutrient levels, and maintaining soil health. By tracking these parameters, farmers and gardeners can ensure that their crops receive the appropriate amount of water and nutrients, avoid overwatering, adjust their fertilizer applications as needed, and assess the overall health and productivity of their soil. Ultimately, monitoring soil conditions is essential for achieving long-term sustainability and maximizing crop yields.
The Difficulties Monitoring Soil Conditions
However, monitoring soil moisture and other conditions (such as temperature and electrical conductivity) can be a challenging task, and several factors can make it difficult to achieve accurate and reliable results.
- Maintenance
One of the major difficulties in monitoring soil conditions is the maintenance of the sensors. Regular calibration, cleaning, and replacement of parts are necessary to ensure accurate readings, which can be a time-consuming and costly process. Failure to maintain the sensors can lead to inaccurate measurements, rendering the monitoring efforts useless.
- High Cost
The cost of soil moisture and temperature monitoring equipment can be a significant challenge, especially for small-scale farmers or those with limited budgets. Investing in high-quality sensors and equipment can be crucial for accurate monitoring, but it may be out of reach for some farmers, leaving them without access to critical data for optimizing plant growth and conserving water resources.
- Installation:
The installation of soil sensors is a complex process that requires careful consideration of various factors such as soil type, depth, and location. In rocky or hard soils, the installation can be particularly challenging, requiring specialized equipment and expertise. Even in ideal conditions, improper installation can result in inaccurate readings, making it essential to have the right skills and knowledge to ensure successful installation and reliable monitoring.
Except for these challenges, regular monitoring of soil conditions also is crucial for optimizing crop yields, conserving water resources, and achieving long-term sustainability.
Milesight EM500-SMTC Soil Moisture Sensor
Milesight EM500-SMTC is a LoRaWAN®-enabled sensor designed explicitly for soil moisture, temperature and electrical conductivity monitoring, which can help solve the difficulties of monitoring soil moisture and temperature mentioned earlier. Here are some features of the EM500-SMTC sensor that can help:
- “3-in-1” sensor
The EM500-SMTC sensor can measure soil moisture, temperature and electrical conductivity, making it more convenient and efficient than using separate sensors for each measurement.
- LoRaWAN® Connectivity
The EM500-SMTC sensor uses LoRaWAN® technology for wireless communication, which provides long-range connectivity and low power consumption, making it suitable for remote monitoring.
- High Accuracy
The EM500-SMTC sensor uses a capacitance-type soil moisture sensor and a precision thermistor to ensure accurate and reliable measurements.
- Easy Installation
The EM500-SMTC sensor is designed for easy installation and can be buried directly in the soil, making it suitable for different soil types and depths.
- Low Maintenance
The Milesight EM500-SMTC Soil Sensor requires minimal maintenance and has a battery life of up to 5 years, making it a cost-effective solution for soil moisture, temperature and electrical conductivity monitoring.
- Cloud-based Data Management:
The sensor can send data to a cloud-based platform, allowing for easy data management and analysis.
Solution
By using the EM500-SMTC Soil sensors, farmers and gardeners can monitor the moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity of soil in real-time. The data collected by the sensor is then transferred to Milesight UG67 Outdoor Gateway through LoRaWAN® and sends it to the Milesight IoT Cloud platform. The platform is optimized for data visualization and allows users to visualize data in real-time, generate reports, and set up alerts and notifications for specific events or conditions.
Overall, the solution provides a comprehensive solution for monitoring soil conditions in real-time. This solution can be used in a variety of applications, including agriculture, horticulture, and landscaping, to optimize water usage, improve crop yields, and reduce environmental impact.
Success Stories
Milesight Delivers Remote Irrigation Solution to Boost Energy Efficiency for the Vineyard in Ningxia
Milesight Brings Digital Agriculture into Fig Plantation in Shandong China
Milesight Automates a Smart Greenhouse over LoRa in Mauritius
