Monitoring and managing soil moisture in horticultural systems

As we come out of a dry season the need to understand how our crops utilise water is increasingly important. Join us for this free Soil Association webinar where we share the benefits of using soil moisture probes to understand moisture uptake by plants and how to utilise the information for irrigation scheduling and crop management decisions.

Carolyn Coxe, Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association, speaks with John Taylor, an Agroecology at Scale Demo Farmer at Polybell Farms, and Peter White from Soil Moisture Sense about how best to measure and utilise data from both soil moisture probes and on farm weather stations to make informed crop management decisions.

Our speakers:

John Taylor, Polybell Farms

John Taylor has over 20 years experience of growing organic vegetables for the UK retail and wholesale markets across Scotland, Norfolk and more recently Nottinghamshire. Since joining Pollybell Farms in 2015, John has been integral in refocusing the farming businesses on delivering consistent quality and availability to their customers to grow the organic market for brassicas and leeks. Pollybell Farms is a family owned estate growing organic vegetables, cereals and integrating cover crops for fertility building throughout the rotation. John advocates attention to detail on water management, soil health and crop management as key drivers for the farm becoming resilient in the rapidly changing climate.

Peter White, Director of Soil Moisture Sense:

Peter White has been working with sensing technology hardware and data interpretation since 1995. In 2011 he started Soil Moisture Sense with Tim Blyth and Jonathan Munslow, combining their experience to provide new solutions for crop monitoring in the UK. Soil Moisture Sense is one of the UK's leading providers of crop data and decision support services, with over 30 years of experience in crop monitoring. Their wide range of solutions for crop and weather monitoring are backed by expert data analysis and near real-time updates. They provide an end to end service, including system builds, installation, online date display, daily emails, on-site visits, and regular maintenance and repairs as required.

Carolyn Coxe, Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association:

Carolyn brings vast knowledge and practical experience of growing produce for the retail and wholesale markets to the Soil Association's Farming and Land Use team. This combined with experience in estate management for a mixed organic farming business whilst managing the implementation of agri-environmental schemes. Carolyn has a BSc(Hons) Environmental Management and is BASIS/FACTS qualified. She has a keen interest in improving the farmed environment to produce sustainable produce suited to changing market demands.

Agenda

3.00pm - Introductions to the panel, Polybell Farms and Soil Moisture Sense

3.15pm - Examples of equipment and data available when using these systems

3.30pm - Review of Pollybell's season and how the data has aided their decision making

3.45pm - Exploring challenges with crop water utilisation and living mulches

3.55pm - Q&A

4.15pm - Close

We encourage attendees to bring their questions to the panel through the Q&A, where there will be plenty of time for discussion. Whether you're an experienced grower or exploring new approaches, this session offers insights you can take straight back to your system.

This technical webinar is part of our Agroecology at Scale Programme, part of the ground-breaking Farm to Fork Partnership between Ocado and Soil Association which has been established to help transform the way we eat, farm and care for our natural world.

Recording and photography

Please be advised that recording and/or photography by Soil Association may take place at this event. To decline consent, you can get in touch with us at info.farmingandlanduse@soilassociation.org

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