Wednesday, November 7, 2007
305-17
Performance of the Capacitance Type New EC-5 ECH2O Soil Water Probes in Florida Sandy Soil.
The extremely sandy soils (>95% fine sand) in the Central Florida requires an efficient irrigation management system to counteract the increasing competition for water for domestic use from the rapidly growing urban population. Soil water probes are essential for precise irrigations which can cut down the waste. New versions of soil moisture probes will continue to develop with feed backs from field performances. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the new probe called EC-5 ECH2O probes in terms of 1) probe to probe signal variability, 2) response to fertilizer induced salinity, 3) soil volume sampled by the probes, 4) sensitivity to pockets of air or dry soil, 5) response to changes in soil temperature, 6) performance in the field and 7) to compare the performance with the already tested EC-20 probes. The new probes are not sensitive to salinity or temperature fluctuations. Sensitivity to pockets of air or dry soil is similar to the EC-20 probes. New probes show better response than the EC-20 probes in the field.
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