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Source: https://www.waybeyond.io/resources/the-problem-with-hand-held-moisture-meters-for-plants?hsLang=en

27.05.2021 | 5 min read

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The problem with handheld moisture meters for plants

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Soil moisture meter Optimize tomato yield by balancing generative and vegetative growth. While the popularity of hand held moisture meters for plants shows no signs of abating, there are some significant disadvantages for growers using this tool. Handheld soil moisture and substrate moisture meters are a staple of every greenhouse grower’s toolkit. Every grower I know owns one, or has owned one (or several) at some point. The popularity of “handhelds” stems from their portable nature, their accuracy and affordability.

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Moisture meters become an essential tool

Once manufacturers of soil moisture monitoring technology released a moisture meter that was small enough to be handled comfortably, robust enough to take a knock or two and affordable enough for even the most cash strapped grower, the hand held meter secured its place on the list of essential tools for both commercial and domestic growers. Portability also played a big part in the success of handheld moisture sensors. Having a moisture measurement tool which was battery-powered and could be used by many kept equipment costs under control. Hand held units could be shared amongst multiple growing teams across shift changes or at multiple sites so greenhouse growing operations could make do with just one or two units.

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Disadvantages of the hand held moisture meter

Clipboard used for data recording Growers typically record moisture readings with paper, pen and clipboard making it difficult to analyze the data over various time periods. Despite these factors, handheld moisture meters have their downsides – particularly in greenhouse environments. The first of these is that handheld probes can only provide the grower with the current soil or substrate moisture reading – one from just a single moment in time. While growers may record many readings over the course of a day or week, these are typically taken only at the moment the reading is required. If notes are taken they tend to be handwritten, making it difficult to analyze data over various time periods without consulting many sheets of paper.  Whether growing in Rockwool, Coco Coir or soil, growers want to consult their data and ask themselves: “How is the water content for my plants tracking?” 
  • This week
  • This month
  • Compared to last growing season
Paper records make answering these basic questions a long and slow process.  Even with data entered into a spreadsheet (the inputting of which is time-consuming and subject to human error) it can be hard to achieve macro and micro views of moisture content readings without some additional (and often more involved) digital fiddling. 

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Potentially vital data missing from time in between readings taken

Raspberries Crops like rasberries quickly become irrecoverable if an irrigation pump fails in-between scheduled moisture meter readings. Even growers who take soil moisture measurements 5 or 6 times a day are prone to missing events that may happen in between their scheduled moisture data recording. Should an irrigation pump fail, soil can quickly dry out with devastating effects. Crops like berries and cannabis quickly become irrecoverable after just a few hours and if the failure event occurs between times when moisture readings are taken, growers can be unaware of the issue until it is too late.

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Fragility of plant moisture probes remain a problem

The pins on a pin-type meter are vital components for gathering accurate soil-water content readings but like most other tools in the greenhouse they can be knocked, dropped or trodden on so careful handling and storage is key. Unfortunately the portable nature of handheld meters means they are handled more frequently by more people which increases the probability of the meter incurring some kind of damage.

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You risk losing your moisture data

While this is not a risk specific to hand held moisture meters it is worth noting that it only takes one corrupt file, a virus, an accidental deletion or a file overwrite to lose months or perhaps years of data. Many growers are precariously positioned when it comes to the security and robustness of their file storage and data backup systems.

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Inconsistency of location for repeated moisture sensor readings

Another issue is one of consistency of location. When using handheld meters it’s unlikely you will press the probe into the exact same spot as the last time you took a reading. While this may not be of immediate concern, successfully growing crops is the product of the interplay between many variables, and so removing those that are unnecessary builds a more robust and repeatable process. Additionally, greenhouse growers want to collect moisture readings from the same area as they are collecting other climate data.

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Getting soil moisture data to work for you

The two biggest cons of using hand held moisture meters are the lack of continuous data and the difficulty in manipulating that data, both current and historic. Routing moisture readings to a data logger is one step towards addressing this, but a better and more forward focused solution is connecting the moisture sensor data to the Cloud.
Real time data can be visualized as graphs or tables while historic data can be retrospectively analyzed to spot trends”
— Once published to the Cloud, real time data can be visualized as graphs or tables while historic data can be retrospectively analyzed to spot trends, to benchmark operations to track improvements or to study climate conditions that led up to negative events like a pest or disease outbreaks. Soil/substrate data can also be combined with climate data to build a better overall picture of climate conditions in the greenhouse. For example, photosynthesis, the process that plants use to grow, requires water, carbon dioxide and light. This process, depending on the plant, is optimum at certain temperature and humidity ranges. By studying the data the grower can learn what the limiting factor is. Too much light, but not enough water won’t necessarily speed up photosynthesis and therefore growth.

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Choosing the right moisture meter for monitoring your plants

The choices for greenhouse growers are:
  • hand held meters,
  • fixed meters with digital displays,
  • fixed meters coupled with data loggers; or
  • meters transmitting to the Cloud.
Hobbyists and small growers usually settle for the items earlier on this list as they tend to be cheaper but larger commercial growers can also hang on to these for much longer than is useful – and is time efficient to do so – simply put, the tool is no longer appropriate to the scale of their operations. One climate monitoring solution that will scale as farm operations grow is the Folium sensor network. Folium sensors collect real-time climate and environmental readings and publish to the Cloud. This data is visualized as heatmaps, charts or graphs to provide growers with a more holistic view of conditions in their growing environment. inserting-mositure-sensor As well as its 6 climate readings, the Folium multi sensor also accepts a moisture sensor so you receive continuous data on the moisture in your slab. An external moisture meter plugs into the base of the Folium sensor to provide continuous moisture readings from the growing media. Growers set alerts to be notified should soil/slab moisture readings fall outside their specified parameters so they achieve greater consistency in managing irrigation. Folium is a bluetooth wireless sensor and portable and so can be located anywhere growers need to collect data. It collects readings of: temperature, humidity, PAR and RAD (two types of light), CO2, and barometric pressure. Additionally, external sensors such as a soil moisture or substrate moisture sensor or a plant temperature sensor can be connected.

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No more wasted time with handhelds meters

The saying “Old habits die hard” is never more true than in agriculture. If your farm staff are still spending hours walking the rows, taking plant readings with a hand held moisture meter and clipboard, you could be doing things better. Improving farm management practices by leveraging technology like Folium sensor network saves man hours and therefore labor costs. A small farm paying staff USD15 an hour for example, could save at least 2 hours per day. Saving 30perdaydoesn’tsoundlikemuch,butequatestonearly30 per day doesn’t sound like much, but equates to nearly 11,000 a year. Coupled with a slew of other benefits including greater awareness of potential disease outbreaks, dialling in conditions for optimum Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and having access to a growing body of data to make better decisions going forward means Folium sensor network is a wise investment for any grower serious about data driven farming. Learn more about replacing hand held moisture meters with Folium. Measuring tomato growth with calipers VISIT OUR RESOURCE HUB
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