Development and Evaluation of a Digital MPF5-Moisture Meter

Abstract

. An important advantage for applying the right amount of water to the fields is provided by the effective irrigation management tech-niques based on soil moisture monitoring. With a calibrated and exact resolution of 0.03m3/m3 and 36 mV, the developed MPF5 moisture meter monitors soil moisture from a depth of 10 cm to 80 cm using a set of sensors, transducers, capacitors, resistors, and variable micro-switch. The response monitoring system compares the soil moisture to the user-specified target values and generates an alert if the soil moisture falls below the required level for par-ticular crops. There were many similarities between the instru-ment's output and that of other automated soil moisture meters like the REOTEMP-MM17 moisture meter and the PR2 capacitance moisture meter. The device works very well for both mineral and organic soils to monitor soil moisture for reliable irrigation sched-uling.

Keywords

• soil moisture
• mpf5 moisture meter
• irrigation scheduling
• crop
• mineral and organic soil