USDA-ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station
This repository contains the documentation for the Open_Irr soil water tension management system.
First Published in HardwareX: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2023.e00458
Development of data driven, sensor-based irrigation has become possible with recent advancements in technology, yet due to a cost-barrier to entry, equitable adoption remains out of reach. Therefore, a simple microcontroller based LoRa platform, Open_Irr, was developed in the Arduino IDE to record resistive measures of soil matric potential and automate irrigation events. A single Open_Irr Node may connect with ≤ 16 Watermark® soil sensors and manage 4 irrigation groups, with Node sampling frequency, irrigation settings, and radio transmission settings being end-user adjustable without programming knowledge. Multiple Nodes may connect with a single Gateway to provide a scale-neutral solution for irrigation automation.
Within the soils laboratory of the Appalachian Fruit Research Station the Open_Irr device is utilized for abiotic stress screening trials. Several experiments have been performed to automate water management in research activities.
Apple Rootstock Trial
Peach Nursery stock Trial
The system is currently being trialed by several academic groups across institutions in the U.S.. The first commercial trials have commenced in spring 2025. Have an interest in using this equipment or contributing to the project - please contact Dr. Andrew M. Bierer