Soil analysis probe – AKA Primary Solutions, Harvest

The Harvest soil analysis probe, supplied by Australian agent AKA Primary Solutions, provides live and historical soil data for farm management decisions.

Benefits

The Harvest Acclima TDR probe keeps you informed on the moisture, temperature and conductivity of your farm’s soil.

Multiple probes can be spaced at regular intervals, down to 80cm, to accurately quantify the penetration of irrigation and rainfall events.

The data helps to determine optimal timings for:

• irrigation throughout the year
• necessary chemical applications.

How it works

Harvest probe uses a reflected radar pulse to measure soil moisture, temperature, conductivity, and volumetric water content. It has 3 prongs that are 15 cm long, inserted horizontally to non-disturbed soil.

Unlike capacitance probes, the TDR technology does not require calibration to soil conductivity.

The probe integrates with the Harvest weather and base station, which can use either:

• a solar-powered logger with a built-in modem, to transmit data remotely
• UHF for short-range transmissions.

Data updates every 15 minutes and can be accessed on the Harvest website or mobile application.

^{Harvest online dashboard for soil moisture}

Installation and power

The soil probe can be installed by AKA Primary Solutions.

It is solar powered, using a weather station as the base.

Connectivity requirements

The soil probe is connected to the base station via UHF wireless remote signal, with data sent to the Harvest web page or mobile app using 3G.