Answers to questions about AquaSpy intelligent technology and proprietary YES! Score.

Easy to install probes measure soil moisture at 4-inch intervals down to a depth of 48 inches, as well as salinity and temperature. These data are pre-processed then transmitted over the cellular network to the AquaSpy Cloud. Proprietary algorithms give yield-optimizing insights for ideal irrigation. The powerful, intelligent AgSpy algorithm processes the data and provides analysis and actionable insights so that the grower can easily understand what is going on out in the field without having to visit the field.

Having root-specific data literally avoids “spray and pray” – watering the field and hoping something good happens. Studies based on data collected from 1950 to 2015 have shown that simply adding irrigation for corn, soybean, spring wheat, winter wheat, sorghum, cotton, barley, oats and alfalfa, can yield 210% to 250% more food than when relying only on rainfall. That sounds like a great win. However, that’s literally leaving money on the table. The next evolution is to take this “horizontal” approach (spraying across the field) that assumes that since the soil is moist that it’s benefiting the roots and flip that on its head with a vertical approach into the crop root zone. Looking downward into the active root zone up to 48 inches is what we call a “vertical” approach. Using this new vertical approach of looking at each crop’s roots, a grower can gain up to another 40% more yield in addition to conserving valuable water and costly nutrients. A vertical approach lets the grower better control the timing and volume of irrigation as well as nutrients which leads to better crop health, consistency and yield.

Crops and vegetables best suited for 12 sensor probes include plants with active root zones between 16 and 60 inches which covers a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains. Crophesy 3 sensor probes are great for shallow rooted vegetables.

The platform includes:

No coding or programming is required. Simply install the probes in your field, select your location and crop type in the AgSpy interface and the work is done for you. AquaSpy has gathered more than 10 years of active root zone data for literally hundreds of crop types and lifecycle stages.

The system is pre-calibrated and auto-connects to the AgSpy platform for remote monitoring, meaning that there is little interaction with the system in the field until end of season removal. With a sensor providing moisture, temperature and EC data at 4 inch intervals down to 48 inches, a comprehensive vertical view of the soil condition past the depth of most crop roots is transmitted at regular intervals to the AgSpy cloud-based data-driven platform.

For the moisture report, relative moisture is plotted against time. Upward spikes are water events, either rain or mechanical irrigation. The stair-step progress from a water event shows the uptake of water by the crop roots as evapotranspiration increases during the day.

The green band represents the ideal moisture zone calculated for this crop. The goal of irrigation management is to keep soil moisture in this band. The lower border of the green band is set above the crop refill rate, below which wilt can occur.