McCauely Dalyn M, Nackley Lloyd L
Department of Horticulture, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States.
North Willamette Research and Extension Center, Aurora, OR, United States.
HardwareX. 2022 Mar 23;11:e00298. doi: 10.1016/j.ohx.2022.e00298. eCollection 2022 Apr.
Development of more efficient and sustainable irrigation technology is critical to maintain horticultural production in a water scarce future. Sensor controlled irrigation is an emerging technology that has the potential to increase irrigation efficiency and reduce overwatering by using real-time data on container water status to control the timing and volume of irrigation events. This project presents a novel irrigation control system using lysimetry. We develop small scale lysimeters, referred to as mini-lysimeter, which provide a direct measure of actual evapotranspiration (ET) via a change in mass of containerized crops. As such, mini-lysimeter sensors have the potential to be an effective instrument for automatic irrigation scheduling. This paper presents the mini-lysimeter controlled irrigation system design in detail, including the mini-lysimeter sensors, data logger and control system configuration, and the hardware needed to integrate the control system into existing irrigation infrastructure. A proof of concept study is presented where mini-lysimeter (ML) controlled irrigation is compared to a traditional timer-based irrigation schedule. Results show that the ML controlled irrigation system can produce plants of equal size to traditional irrigation methods while using 26% less water on average. The outcome of this study indicates that the hardware presented here is reliable and robust enough to produce quality plants in a real nursery production setting, and this technology provides a novel approach to improving water efficiency in container nurseries.
开发更高效、可持续的灌溉技术对于在水资源稀缺的未来维持园艺生产至关重要。传感器控制灌溉是一项新兴技术，它有可能通过利用容器水分状况的实时数据来控制灌溉事件的时间和量，从而提高灌溉效率并减少过度浇水。本项目提出了一种使用蒸渗仪的新型灌溉控制系统。我们开发了小型蒸渗仪，称为微型蒸渗仪，它通过容器化作物质量的变化直接测量实际蒸散量（ET）。因此，微型蒸渗仪传感器有可能成为自动灌溉调度的有效工具。本文详细介绍了微型蒸渗仪控制灌溉系统的设计，包括微型蒸渗仪传感器、数据记录器和控制系统配置，以及将控制系统集成到现有灌溉基础设施所需的硬件。本文还展示了一项概念验证研究，将微型蒸渗仪（ML）控制灌溉与传统的基于定时器的灌溉计划进行了比较。结果表明，ML控制灌溉系统能够培育出与传统灌溉方法大小相同的植物，同时平均用水量减少26%。这项研究的结果表明，这里介绍的硬件足够可靠和耐用，能够在实际苗圃生产环境中培育出优质植物，并且这项技术为提高容器苗圃的用水效率提供了一种新方法。
