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Tucson, AZ | Jumped in this a little late, but yes, you can tell where your roots are by basically looking for stepping patterns. Looks like you have activity down to 22" level, but the lower levels do not. In the lower graph (I'm assuming it's a total summed graph), you have some nice steps, so seems like the crop is not stressed, but you need to observe the ET to have a comparison. Basically it works like this: if the crop has enough water to drink and the day is hot, you'll see a large step; if the crop has enough water, but the day is cooler, you should see a shorter step; This is what's happening when the plant is not water stressed. If in a couple day's time you have a hot day with similar ET to the previous hot day, but you notice the step is now smaller, the data is showing you that the plant is not able to get as much water as it would like and therefore getting into stress. Within a couple days, you may notice the steps getting smaller and smaller even though the ET is still about the same or higher. This can actually happen a couple days BEFORE you even notice any physical symptoms in your crop.
The more you watch the trends in the graph, the less you'll pay attention to the numbers. I'm not saying they're not important, but the patterns are telling you exactly how the plant is doing below the ground. If you get hung up on the numbers you can miss that valuable information. Let the crop tell you when it needs more water. You have the tools to understand that with your probes.
I hope that's helpful for the coming season! | |
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Sentek Moisture Probes in Corn
