CARROTZ32: SOME WATER WLD BE GR8 KTHX

water sensor on plant photo
Photo: AgriHouse

Plants are Texting for Water Thanks to High-Tech Sensors
Usually, a plant that is dying of thirst can't call for help. But that might change thanks to some new sensors that will allow plants to text for water. The farmer of the future might be getting more email from his crops than from his family & friends. And the sensors are not hard to install: "It's akin to a clip on earring, very thin and smaller than a postage stamp, and is affixed to the plant leaf," said Richard Stoner, President of AgriHouse, a company marketing the technology. Read on for more details.

From Discovery News:

For areas that receive regular and plentiful rainfall, such detailed crop monitoring might not be useful or economical. But in the western United States, where much of the water comes from underground aquifers, conserving water, and more importantly, conserving the electricity that pumps it to the surface and across fields, could save farmers hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

This is just one of many ways that agricultural irrigation could be made more efficient. A lot of farmers could learn from techniques used in countries such as Israel, because over-pumping aquifers is a huge problem.

Via Discovery News

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