Products which measure soil moisture have been the core products from Adelaide based MEA since 1986.
Recently, MEA was awarded a grant from Commercialisation Australia to help in the development of Plexus, an affordable, wireless data transmission system, which collects soil moisture readings from throughout your property and delivers data to your desktop.
It’s not just another radio system. Plexus is a networking wireless, bouncing from one station to the next until it reaches the hub, the point at which the data is needed.
This self-healing networking means that its operation is independent of terrain and obstacles.
Plexus measures soil moisture using either gypsum block or capacitance probes. By 2013 Plexus will also be used with MEA’s Plant Water Stress sensor which is used to measure water stress in crops including fruit trees.
At this stage the Plant Water Stress sensor is only available to plant researchers and is expected to be available to commercial irrigators during 2013.
For information see the September 2012 issue of Tree Fruit
