Watering with Soil Moisture Sensors - Baseline Systems

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©2011, Baseline Irrigation SolutionsSpecial Soil Moisture Sensor ApplicationsSports Fields and High Use AreasBaseline soil moisture sensors are commonly used for irrigating sports fields and other high use areasbecause of the system’s ability to separately manage the schedule on each field in the complex and tofill the profile up to the desired level on a stringent schedule.When you are using soil moisture sensors to monitor irrigation in a sports complex, it’s best to install asensor in each field, and then program the zones that water each field as a group. We recommend thisapproach because you may have a game on one field but not on the one next to it. The use of the fieldscauses a difference in irrigation frequency, and separate sensors are required to control the separateirrigation schedules.The goals and challenges• Maintain a firm and consistent playing surface at game time (not so hard that it creates a higherrisk of injury, not too soft or the surface will get damaged).• Schedule irrigation around games and other events.• Allow different schedules for different fields within the complex.• Deal with all the other challenges of a regular irrigation system, such as limited water supplies,distribution uniformity, maintenance needs, and so on...Suggested features and practices• Use the upper threshold watering strategy. Set the upper threshold below field capacity toincrease turf durability.• When possible, try to set the start time long enough before play begins to give the surface achance to firm up. Start irrigating again after the event to help the field recover.• Place a sensor in each field that has a different schedule. The operator can pause the irrigationat any time and then the system will automatically “catch up” at the next opportunity.• Place the sensor in an average area in the field, but not the highest use area. Avoid areas thatmay receive water from an alternate source such as water and drinks being poured out alongthe sidelines.• Keep the sensor wire below the aeration depth to avoid damaging it when aerating. Do not burythe sensor too deep, but keep the sensor itself within the most active part of the root zone.Mark the spot where the sensor is buried using GPS, a sight marker, or a measurement.Engineered Environments (Green Roofs, Green Walls, Interior Plantings)Baseline soil moisture sensors are used in engineered environments because it is often the only way toeffectively automate the control of these systems. The engineered environment presents manychallenges that cannot be managed by an open looped system such as a weather-based system. Theprimary challenge that is created is the extremely small amount of plant available water that can bestored in the soil reservoir. This is often coupled with extreme environments.The goals and challenges• Often water conservation oriented sites• Shallow soils or low water holding capacity, often not enough holding capacity to last a full dayduring peak usage• Greatly increased evaporative effects over traditional on-grade plantingsWatering with Soil Moisture Sensors17 | P age
©2011, Baseline Irrigation Solutions• High to very high replacement cost of plant material• Environmental benefits from keeping plants healthy and thrivingSuggested features and practices• Use lower threshold and set the turn-on point much closer to field capacity than would benecessary with on-grade plantings.• Use multiple start times per day to ensure the plants always have available water.• Set the threshold manually by following either calibration method #2 or #3 described in theSetting a Threshold (Calibrating the Sensor) section beginning on page 15.• Set fairly short run times by visually monitoring the site for the first couple weeks. Run timesneed to be long enough to take the moisture from lower threshold to field capacity, but shortenough to prevent runoff.Steep SlopesBaseline irrigation controls provide features to irrigate slopes as efficiently as possible. Using IntelligentSoak Cycles and the soil moisture sensor’s ability to measure only effective irrigation, you can minimizerunoff and often eliminate it completely.The goals and challenges• Eliminate or at least minimize runoff• Raise healthy plants• Avoid soil erosion or land movement caused from excessive irrigationSuggested features and practices• Know your precipitation rate so you can work toward deep and infrequent watering as much aspossible.• Put zones with steep slopes on a separate program.• Use Intelligent Soak Cycles and adjust cycle times by visually monitoring runoff during anirrigation event. It is not unusual to have cycle times as short as one or two minutes.• Not all slope issues can be remedied with controller settings. If you have one or more of thefollowing issues, you may need to address the issue before adjusting the controller setting:o The slope is too steep.o The soil is heavily compacted.o The sprinkler heads put out water at too high of a rate (for example, VAN spray nozzles).o The zone has very poor distribution uniformity.• Bury the sensor in line with the slope so that water moving downhill will run past the sensor andnot build up on the uphill side.Subsurface Drip Tubing IrrigationSubsurface irrigation systems can be difficult to manage because you cannot see the water beingapplied. The surface can be dry even when the root zone is saturated. A Baseline soil moisture sensor isthe perfect tool for managing subsurface irrigation systems because the sensor is buried in the rootswhere the water is used.Watering with Soil Moisture Sensors18 | P age
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Watering with Soil Moisture Sensors - Baseline Systems

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