Blog · EIC Controls
Soil moisture and irrigation decisions: sensors at several depths, field calibration and reading drought bulletins at the scale of a plot.
A study in a Swiss apple orchard compared dendrometer-driven irrigation with irrigation driven by soil moisture sensors over two seasons: the dendrometer treatment used 38% less water in 2022 and more than 45% less in 2023, with no significant difference in yield. What it allows us to conclude, what it does not, and what it changes in deciding what to measure.
The temperature that decides frost damage is that of the plant tissue, and it is hard to measure. Five decisions for measuring the air as close to it as possible: height, shield, points in the plot, the variable for your protection method, and threshold with alarm.
At 45 SIAR network stations in Aragón (2004-2024), ET0 calculated from temperature alone rose at 36, while Penman-Monteith ET0 showed no significant trend at 33 and fell at 12. What this study allows you to conclude about which variables to measure, and what it does not.
Global solar radiation and PAR are not the same quantity and are not measured with the same sensor. Which decision needs which, how much the factor that converts one into the other changes with the sky, and what to record before installing.
A study published in May 2026 calibrated low-cost capacitive sensors in the laboratory and then moved them to real plots. The laboratory curve drifted in the field, and a single reference measurement on site recovered much of the accuracy.
On 10 September, Copernicus published its August 2026 bulletins: exceptionally dry surface soils and river flows well below average across much of Europe. What those maps support deciding, and what they do not.
