By Troy Ingram

The Crop Water App from Nebraska Extension will help producers using Watermark soil moisture sensors to schedule irrigation.

Getting started
After downloading and opening the app, enter the field name you are working in. Then tap the arrow on the screen, and the app will use the device’s GPS to input the coordinates of the sensors in the field. The “GPS location” is also helpful in locating sensors in the field when you go to read them or to remove them at the end of the growing season.

Next, select your soil texture from the dropdown list. The app will then tell you the available water-holding capacity for the soil in inches per foot. Now select the number of sensors you are using at this location. You can then enter your sensor readings and select your “Allowable water depletion” percentage.

FREE APP: The Crop Water App is free and available for both Apple and Android platforms.

As a rule of thumb during the growing season, the 50% allowable water depletion is used to avoid yield loss. Irrigators with an older system prone to breakdowns, or irrigators on electric load control may want to select 30% or 40% depletion as a target.

Touch the calculate button, and total water available and total water depleted will both be calculated. These readings can then be saved to your device to be viewed later. The app also can graph the data to view trends throughout the growing season.

The newest feature incorporated into the app is a prediction of the last irrigation. When this option is selected, you can enter the crop and growth stage, and the app will give you the predicted maturity date and water needed to finish out the crop. This water can be from stored soil moisture, rainfall or irrigation.

Planning ahead
Start preparing for the next crop season by downloading and testing new technologies this winter and spring. The Crop Water App is free and available for both Apple and Android platforms. The Apple version is available on the App Store for iOS devices, and the Android version is available on Google Play.

Ingram is a Nebraska Extension educator. This report comes from UNL CropWatch.