Removable Weighing Lysimeter for Use in Horticultural Crops

Abstract

Water resources management is a priority issue in agriculture, especially in areas with water supply problems. Recently, one of the most widespread technologies for measuring crop water requirements are weighing lysimeters. Nevertheless, this type of lysimeters are of large dimensions and require a civil work for their installation. In this article, we present a weighing lysimeter prototype (1000 × 600 mm and 350 mm depth) designed to be used in agricultural farming of horticultural crops. We described the design details that includes ease of assembly, carriage and minimum soil alteration. Structural design results and construction process are also provided showing their performance under different tractors scenarios. The measurements accuracy results show the outcomes of the prototype after being tested. Finally, we discuss our design and measurements results by comparing them with other weighing lysimeters. In comparison, the prototype designed is an accurate and reliable device which reduces the surface and depth of the current weighing lysimeters.

Assessing a Removable Mini-Lysimeter for Monitoring Crop Evapotranspiration Using a Well-Established Large Weighing Lysimeter: A Case Study for Barley and Potato

“…At the end of the late season stage (between day 167 after sowing and harvest), this lysimeter did not work properly as the load cells malfunctioned and all lysimeter records were lost. Further information about the technical features of this prototype of lysimeter was recently reported by [14].…”

“…However, in many cases, the lysimeter facilities are quite expensive, difficult to install and labour-intensive [33]. Therefore, the use of different prototypes of a small-sized or mini-L has expanded, with the aim of monitoring the soil water balance components, which seems an interesting alternative [14,15]. Firstly, these systems require correct calibration.…”

“…Later, based on this prototype of a lysimeter, Ref. [14] designed a small-sized weighing lysimeter for measuring water use of vegetable crops, which is easy to install, maintain and remove. The authors in [15] conducted a comparative study between a long-established LWL (2-m diameter and 2.5-m deep) and a mini-L (0.3-m diameter and 0.6-m deep) used to measure the components of the soil water balance (i.e., ET, rainfall and drainage).…”

LysipheN: a gravimetric IoT device for near real-time high-frequency crop phenotyping: a case study on common beans

“…The lysimeters measure changes in water movements by weighing the entire system. However, because of their robustness and complexity, most designs are considered impractical and expensive thus they are not widely used in research centers [ 16 ]. Additionally, the weighing lysimeter is a very accurate method for studying crop water-related requirements and gives valuable data for improving crop water management.…”

Development of an Algorithm for an Automatic Determination of the Soil Field Capacity Using of a Portable Weighing Lysimeter

“…The most accurate tool for quantifying crop water requirements by measuring water balance components is a weighing lysimeter [4,13,14]; it can be considered another technology to know evaporation demand. The potential of employing commercial lysimeters in the future is very high for their low cost and the quality data they offer.…”