New App Taps Into Irrigation Needs for Sweet Corn

A team of researchers from University of Florida, Auburn, and the University of Georgia have developed an app that will help farmers reduce the risk of over- or under-watering their sweet corn crops.

According to UF/IFAS scientists, the key to this app is that it gets information from soil moisture sensors that go to various depths beneath the ground: 2 inches, 6 inches and 10 inches, which is the average root depth of Florida’s sweet corn.

“The critical part of this app is that farmers can avoid risks or mistakes,” says Ziwen Yu, a UF/IFAS Assistant Professor of agricultural and biological engineering and principal investigator for the project. “A lot of producers overirrigate their farms. With the app, farmers will know better how much water crops will need.”

At that time of this post, researchers are still collecting data for the study. So, they’re not yet predicting how much water their technology can save. But on average, sweet corn needs about 1 inch of water per week, or about 27,000 gallons per acre.

The app, which researchers hope to make available to farmers before the end of this year, predicts soil moisture five to seven days in advance, giving growers a heads-up on when to water their crops.

Click on the Smart Irrigation website to find out when, where and how to get the corn app. Users simply input current or recent soil moisture readings, and the app adjusts its predictions to match a specific field’s conditions.

Work for the app is being made possible via grants from USDA Conservation Innovation program.

Now that the researchers have shown the app works on sweet corn, Yu says they’re eyeing other types of crops.

“Farmers will even be able to schedule future irrigation events, and the app will factor in both weather patterns and your planned watering to give precise estimation of root-zone moisture on a farm.”