Water Efficiency – Use of technology
At Avowest, irrigation is managed using advanced Aqualink software that has been developed in Australia. Irrigation can be managed remotely to ensure that the appropriate watering strategy is used at all times. The requirement for irrigation is determined using both capacitance probes and live weather stations. Capacitance probes show moisture levels in soils at different depths at all times, while the weather stations will show how demanding the conditions are for the tree and hence how much water they will use.
Data from a typical Capacitance probe at Avowest
The bumps in the red line are watering fronts hitting 10cm
depth. There are smaller “bumps” in the
green line which is 20cm deep. There is
virtually no change at 30 and 40cm depth which is below the active rootzone of
avocados. This shows that only enough
water is being provided by irrigation for the trees to use each day. No water is being lost below the roots.
Live weather station at Avowest Gingin
Display data from the Live Weather Station
