Such an instrument would not require calibration for each different soil type. Capacitance and some other probes indicate the percentage of soil moisture, whereas gypsum blocks and tensiometers ( such as the Soilspec tensiometer system) indicate soil moisture availability.
Soil Moisture control
The combination of an accurate soil moisture measurement tool and a good irrigation strategy will allow for informed decisions to be made about how much and when to apply water to the crop. The record of soil moisture readings will also give an understanding on how changing conditions affect the water requirements of the crop and help plan future irrigation strategies.
Measuring soil moisture can be expensive and difficult, but tensiometers are still a simple, cost effective and reliable method to measure soil moisture availability, particularly when numerous sites are required.
SOIL SOLUTION ANALYSIS
Soil solution analysis will help growers to identify problems before they have any significant impact and will enable them to modify nutrition and/or irrigation practices within the growing season and avert possible decline to their crops. Analysing soil solution provides a quick easy and economical way to measure salt and nutrient levels.
Soil solution analysis is also a useful environmental management tool to reduce nutrient leaching and to help manage solutes in water. There have been huge advances in our ability to monitor soil water on-farm, but not so much in the monitoring of nutrients ans soil salts.
There are three main reasons for carrying out soil solute monitoring .........
- First, either through lack of water, or by trying to use as little water as possible, leaching below the root zone will be reduced and so in some areas salt in the root zone will build up to levels that will damage crops.
- Secondly whilst water is being used more efficiently, it is not necessarily the same for nutrients and there is difficulty in monitoring the nutrient levels in the root zone.
- Thirdly, the increase in use of recycled water and groundwater of lower quality can give an increase in the salt content and so poorer quality waters demand routine monitoring of the conditions in the root zone.
Soil solution analysis is also a valuable environmental tool because it can be used to detect excess nutrients moving below the plant’s root zone. This allows for modification of the fertiliser and irrigation practices to reduce waste and reduce nutrients leaching into waterways.
Soil solution analysis should be used in conjunction with other monitoring tools (visual symptoms, soil and leaf test , soil pH etc) and with advice from an agronomist.
Soil solution analysis kits are available from
T.K Systems Pty Ltd phone 03 5962 5211
