Record Details
Field | Value |
---|---|
Title | Towards autonomous irrigation : comparison of two moisture sensing technologies, irrigation distribution analysis, and wireless network performance at an ornamental container nursery |
Names |
Bailey, Daniel R. (Daniel Roger)
(creator) Selker, John S. (advisor) |
Date Issued | 2011-12-22 (iso8601) |
Note | Graduation date: 2012 |
Abstract | As ornamental container nurseries face diminishing water allocations, many are looking to automated irrigation solutions to increase their water application efficiency. This thesis presents the findings of a study conducted at a commercial container nursery to determine 1) whether a capacitance or load cell sensor was better suited for monitoring volumetric water content in the substrate; 2) if the actual irrigation distribution conformed to the expected pattern, how uniform were the weights of plants, and how these combined with plant canopy affected the leaching fraction; and 3) the reliability of the wireless network used to transmit the data to a central database. It was found that 1) the load cells outperformed the capacitance-based sensors because the load cells took an integrated measure; 2) the actual irrigation pattern followed the expected pattern, the variation of irrigation sections were low (C.V. = 0.06) and similar (C.V. ranging from 0.029 to 0.12), and unpruned plant canopies produced greater leaching fraction than pruned canopies (P < 0.18); and 3) wireless network transmission reliability was low (75.2%), suggesting that the system was not suitable for real-time irrigation control, but was sufficient for calculating irrigation length and monitoring net effective irrigation application and evapotranspirative consumption. |
Genre | Thesis/Dissertation |
Topic | Container nursery |
Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/27055 |