How do you interact with soil sensors?

Hi Rachio users,

The product team is exploring the concept of integrating a soil moisture sensor into our ecosystem. No promises, we are merely in the research phase right now, but we’re quite interested in the potential. To determine if we should pursue this, we would love to get your input:

• Have you purchased a soil sensor to augment your irrigation? How do you use it?
• Does anyone track soil moisture on their own? How does this data help you make irrigation decisions?
• If you had one soil moisture sensor that you could move around your yard, and it provided useful input to your zone watering, what zones would you put it in? Why?
• For what specific use cases would you want to measure a zone with a moisture sensor (e.g. overseeding, new turf, growing tomatoes, potted plants…)

We know there are some issues with the soil moisture graph, and have parallel projects to address those. We’d really like to hear how you all use soil sensors, or how you would want to use them with our system. Thanks!

post by drew_thayer on Oct 11, 2021

I’m curious about your situation. Do you have groundwater commonly saturating parts of your yard, so much so that Rachio’s weather and et-based system is watering too frequently? And you would ideally use a moisture sensor to prevent those extra waterings (i.e. wait until the soil is actually dry enough to need watering)?

I’d also like to know more about your potted plant problem. To clarify: these are outdoor potted plants, and you’d like to irrigate them year-round, but can’t use the in-ground sprinkler system because it gets winterized. We are considering the utility of soil sensors for potted plants like this. The only caveat would be risk of freeze damage to any in-situ irrigation system (i.e. off a hose bib). Do you imagine a sensor in a pot driving an in-situ system, or would you just be using the sensor as direct feedback for when to water manually?

post by eric_j on Oct 12, 2021

I don’t use them, but wish I could because I have some particularly troublesome parts of my yard that I cannot adjust properly due to ground water. I’ve considered buying some, collecting the data, and looking at any interface for controlling the Rachio programmatically so I could basically bypass the intelligence of the controller for some zones.

post by tcremer on Oct 12, 2021

Not all soil sensors send the same information to the controller. They either tell the system to turn off when there is saturation or tell it to turn on when it’s dry.

post by rraisley on Oct 13, 2021

While I would love to have an automated system based on moisture sensors, I don’t think it is practical. Someone posted here a while ago that they got actual soil moisture charts (for a golf course or other commercial system), but for most everyone, that kind of system is out of the question.

post by gaustin on Oct 13, 2021

Obviously I’m biased here but you can’t truly have a smart controller without knowing the moisture content of the soil. All environmental stresses ultimately come down to moisture management. If you over-water, you create an environment conducive to disease, and if you under-water, you run the risk of wilt.

post by johnny2678 on Oct 18, 2021

So, in theory I think soil moisture sensors sound great. The challenge would be getting radio coverage on lawns bigger than 1/3 acre. Assuming the v3 already has a Lora radio for the flow meter.

post by RPostWVU on Oct 18, 2021

What I would like to see is:

You have a soil meter that you put into a zone. The controller then uses weather input and varies its watering pattern to calculate more accurate soil parameters.

post by nathan on Dec 13, 2021

This certainly would be handy. I would appreciate the ability to give the Flex Daily schedule some feedback on the accuracy of its algorithm so it could continue to improve.

post by diabetic_debate on Apr 5, 2022

Right now I use EcoWitt 915MHz WH51 moisture sensors as well as their rain sensor with their gateway. I have a sensor in the middle of each sprinkler zone.

post by AZTempe on May 23, 2022

Yes, please enable a Smart Closed Loop systems with Soil Moisture Sensors. My setup is likely fairly common:

• 1/3 acre suburban yard
• 2 Zones for Citrus and Succulents - 4-7 day interval
• 4 Zones for Turf
• 2 Zones - Raised Bed Garden, Potted Flowers

If you could put together a Closed Loop control system for us it would be great.

post by ady624 on Jun 24, 2024

I’m part of the kickstarter campaign for GeoDrops, a consumer-grade soil moisture sensor that I’ll hopefully get in place for the next growing season. I want to use it to drive optimized watering for my grass.

post by cchrisgates on Oct 28, 2024

I would love sensors. My lawn is fairly sloped and has areas that would be nice to know what is dry and what is wet. This should be a priority and I hope this gets done soon.