Beyond the pivot: 5 ways AquaSpy technology improves yield and soil health

There are 5 ways that proven AquaSpy layer by layer soil moisture technology improves crop yield and soil health that you might not have thought of:

1. Salinity management
2. Flash drought alerts
3. Lodging prevention
4. Cover crop management
5. Regenerative field trials

Salinity Management

Salt-affected soils reduce water use efficiency which causes poor plant health, resulting in reduced yields, or at the worst, causing crop loss. While many growers can visibly spot white salt deposits or crusts visible at the soil surface, salinity occurs at various depths in the soil, and may not be visible to the eye. Excessive soil salinity has become a severe problem for growers in several parts of the U.S. including Florida, Texas High Plains/Rio Grande and California Central Valley. Successive years of drought have forced growers to rely on irrigation water, which can contain salts. If the salts are not leached out of the soil by rainwater or other clean water source, then the salts accumulate, and salinity increases.

Deciduous fruits, nuts, citrus and avocado are among the most salt sensitive crops. Soil salinity can affect crops in three ways; the salty soil draws water from the plants through osmosis, making it difficult for plants to uptake water, increased levels of sodium in particular can alter the structure of the soil, causing the soil surface to transform from flocculated to dispersed, forming a barrier to water infusion, and last there can be specific ion toxicity with certain crop plants and certain soils. AquaSpy understands the relationship between crop health and salinity and includes layer by layer EC salinity measures so growers in impacted regions can keep a close eye on their crops throughout the season, during droughts, and after heavy coastal storms.

Lodging Prevention in Corn and Maize

Timely soil moisture management to prevent stress from water logging or too dry conditions can help prevent stalk lodging in corn and maize. Stalk lodging is the breakage of the stalk below the ear and is a serious problem that can lead to harvest yield losses. Stalk rot resulting from water logging in corn and maize weakens the stalk tissue and can leave the plant more susceptible to breakage.  A number of issues can occur that impact yield when the plant can no longer take up available water. It’s important to minimize plant stress by avoiding extremes in soil moisture as well as nutrient deficiencies caused by N loss or leaching. Closely monitoring soil moisture throughout the growing season ensures that the crop only gets the moisture it needs, layer by layer, which prevents water-logged soils and excess runoff in addition to giving the ability to monitor the crop’s uptake of available moisture throughout the season.

Flash Drought Alerts

A flash drought is when very warm surface temperature paired with an unusually low and decreasing soil moisture leads to rapid drying. Rather than season long droughts that develop over a long period, flash droughts can take hold in just a few weeks so they are more difficult to forecast. Recent memorable flash droughts occurred in 2012, 2017 and 2019, causing billions of dollars of losses for unprepared growers in the affected regions. For growers who are using continuous below ground soil moisture sensors that record soil temperature, soil moisture and crop moisture uptake, they will be able to notice the quickly dropping soil moisture levels in real time, giving them a chance to react. It’s important to set your alerts so that you can know right away that flash drought conditions are setting up.

Cover Crop Management

There has been growing interest in how to incorporate cover crops with corn and soybean rotation as a strategy to promote soil health by reducing soil erosion and nutrient loss. However, a number of questions have been raised as to where cover crops might increase water requirements in already constrained areas. While cover crops will use some water, there is a net overall benefit from keeping the ground covered that includes increased water infiltration and retention, reducing water runoff and reducing evapotranspiration. A 3 year study done at UC Davis found that cover crops did not compete with cash crops (in this case tomato and almond) for water and that the same amount of water used in the control fields without cover crops was able to support the same amount of crop yield in the cover crop fields. A meta analysis of research from around the world shows that results may not be consistent in all regions so it may be useful to run your own season long comparison. You can consult with your local university, extension or cooperative or if you want to conduct trials in your own fields, you can use soil moisture monitoring technology with temperature, infiltration and consumption reports to establish a baseline and then provide real time side by side – and layer by layer! – data to inform your practices based on your own field and crops.

Regenerative Agriculture Field Trials

There is a lot of buzz around sustainable and regenerative practices, though some growers continue to take a cautious approach before making wholesale switches. We talked about cover cropping above and that’s one area where growers have questions about what impact cover crops have and how it changes their water usage. Growers have similar questions around other regenerative practices such as zero / low tillage, crop rotation and managed grazing.

You can use AquaSpy layer by layer soil moisture technology to run concurrent field tests in your own region, climate, soil type, and crops. With AquaSpy soil moisture technology, you’ll be able to make side by side comparisons of what’s happening in the root zone and how the crop is responding:

• Available soil moisture every 4 inches
• Crop utilization of available moisture every 4 inches
• Soil temperature
• Infiltration
• Consumption

What’s unique about AquaSpy’s approach to soil moisture monitoring

AquaSpy looks layer by layer into the soil and can see what’s occurring at the active root zone. This insight is critical for crops which need to have water where and when it’s needed most.

Patented multi-sensor probes measure soil moisture, salinity, temperature and root zone activity independently at 4-inch intervals all the way down to 48 inches. Proprietary algorithms give yield-optimizing insights for ideal irrigation at critical growth stages that impact the outcome of crop yields. The powerful AgSpy system provides analysis and actionable insights so growers can easily understand what is going on without having to visit the orchard or farm.

Visit AquaSpy.com to learn more or visit the AquaSpy Booth #413 at Tech Hub Live 2024 in Des Moines.