Soil tensiometers can read the soil moisture content at the root zone and can tell a grower how much irrigation is needed for that crop on that day. By monitoring the soil moisture, farmers can more precisely irrigate their crops.
Farm Manager Frank Estrada employs precision irrigation practices which Reiter Berry Farms has helped to pioneer with the Hortau company. This system is monitored through the Wireless Irrigation Network (WIN), a pilot project of the Pajaro Valley Community Water Dialogue.
Reiter Berry Farms has been certified organic by CCOF for fifteen years. They grow all types of berries but focus on strawberries, which take up 370 acres on eleven farms sold directly to Driscoll’s Berries. Reiter has worked with Hortau technology, a tension-based irrigation monitoring system, to pioneer this method for monitoring their water use. Over the past three years, through this cutting-edge technology, they have cut water usage by an average of thirty percent.
The system works with in-field probes that read water tension in soil. “Soil tension measures how hard a plant has to work to pull the water molecule away from the soil particle,” says Jeremy Otto, the manufacturer’s representative for Hortau’s West Coast operations.
The wireless field probes then send tension diagnostics to the base station through cell phone networks, and the farmer uses a wireless device to monitor irrigation needs. This allows the farmer to access the information remotely in real time, and to use these precise measurements for their irrigation schedules.
To implement the system, fields are mapped to decide probe and base station locations. Then the probes and base station are installed, including the probes which are buried at whatever depth the farmer wants to monitor. Reiter’s Frank Estrada says “once everything is online it’s as easy as having your laptop or cell phone, logging onto the network and checking your probes.” Reiter has nine fields with nine probes.
The Wireless Irrigation Network (WIN) is a pilot project of Pajaro Valley Community Water Dialogue that alloweds everyone to spend less on the install of these systems by sharing the cost. Probes are generally $800 each plus $7,100 for a base station and $197 per month for service, but in the Pajaro Valley, it is $150/month to join the WIN project. WIN offers a network of base stations providing broad coverage. When farmers buy into the WIN network, they avoid the initial base station cost. The Pajaro Valley aquifer has been in overdraft since about 1950 according to Kelley Bell of Driscoll’s Berries. Bringing precision to the equation of farming in this region has started to create a ripple of positive change to the aquifer management issues in the region.
Recommended Materials
2013 EcoFarm Conference Audio: Pajaro Valley Community Water Dialogues: A Model for Collaboration
2012 EcoFarm Conference Audio: Advanced Irrigation Monitoring
Driscoll’s Sustainability: http://www.driscolls.com/about/sustainability
Hortau: http://www.hortau.com/
Pajaro Valley Community Water Dialogues: http://www.pajarowatershed.org/Content/10111/CommunityWaterDialogue.html
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- Reiter Berry Farms produces strawberries and other berry varieties exclusively for Driscoll’s.
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- Reiter’s organic strawberry fields are more undulating and dynamic than the large flat fields where conventional berries are grown.
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- Example of an in-field device which reads the probe and sends data wirelessly to the internet-connected motherstation.
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- Hortau’s irrigation system uses in-field probes to measure the amount of moisture in the soil so that farmers can irrigate without wasting water.
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- Frank Estrada of Reiter Berry Farms and Jeremy Otto of Hortau stand in an organic strawberry field and talk abou the pros and cons of the precision irrigation system.
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- Example of a base station which receives information from from the in-field probes and connects it to the internet.
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- Checking irrigation data is easy and accessible from any wireless device — phone, tablet or computer.
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- Frank Estrada says “once everything is online it’s as easy as having your laptop or cell phone, logging onto the network, and checking your probes.”
This project is funded in part by a water stewardship grant from the California Department of Food & Agriculture.
EFA Water Stewardship Project 
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Smells an awful lot like propaganda for one particular corporation that provides products and services that are widely available from other businesses. This technology is very expensive and cost prohibitive for most growers, even growers with high value crops like berries. At best, the Hortau system is a tool and should be used in conjunction with a number of other monitoring methods including getting out of the truck and away from your digital device to look at the plants and sticking a shovel in the ground to confirm data. While the Hortau system might be helpful for some growers, it is not a panacea and absolutely does not prevent water waste as claimed in the information provided.
Thank you for the comment, Michael. We understand your point. Our hope with this video was to promote the Wireless Irrigation Network, a project created in collaboration with the exemplary Pajaro Valley Community Water Dialogues, and that was the reason we chose this project which happened to use Hortau. For growers in that watershed, we hope this project is especially valuable and perhaps other regions can adopt similar plans to lower the cost. Again we understand your point. The soil tensiometer is not a new invention, but the partnering of this particular company with a region to serve a group of growers is, to our knowledge. Please let us know if you know otherwise. Thank you!