Soil moisture is an important component of the atmospheric water cycle in both small agricultural scale and large scale terrestrial/atmospheric modeling. Vegetation and crops are always more dependent on moisture conditions at the root level than on precipitation. Water budgeting for irrigation planning as well as actual scheduling of irrigation activities requires local information about the moisture in the soil. The measurement of soil moisture potential at different depths can be carried out by using a tensiometer.  A tensiometer is a fluid filled plastic tube with a porous ceramic tip on one end with a vacuum gauge on the other. Tensiometers range in size from just a few inches for those used for shallow rooted crops to more than two feet for those utilized for large trees. Typically, six or twelve-inch tensiometers are used for vegetable production

 

 

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