Calibration equation and field test of a capacitive soil moisture sensor

A key point to decrease water usage in agriculture is to employ precision agriculture by adopting technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT). Many solutions using the IoT rely on the use of soil moisture sensors to gather data, in real-time, from the plant’s root zone. This study presents a linear calibration curve, obtained by the thermogravimetric method, for a capacitive soil moisture sensor for a silty clay soil sampled at the FEI University Center. The curve obtained has an adjusted R2 of 0.86 and a residual standard error of 2.8%. The soil sensor was tested in the field during the end of February revealing that the sensor is capable of indicating changes in soil moisture within the error obtained from the calibration procedure and that it can be used to indicate changes by rain or irrigation procedures.