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Updated: Jun 13, 2026

Manufacturing Simple and Inexpensive Soil Surface Temperature and Gravimetric Water Content Sensors

Manufacturing Simple and Inexpensive Soil Surface Temperature and Gravimetric Water Content Sensors

Published on: December 21, 2019

Field Performance and Calibration Strategies for Low-Cost Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensors.

Glenn Strypsteen¹, Magnus Persson¹, Mykola Miroshnychenko²

¹Division of Water Resources Engineering, Lund University, 221 00 Lund, Sweden.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)

|June 12, 2026

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Automated Low-Cost Soil Moisture Sensors: Trade-Off between Cost and Accuracy.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)·2023

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Low-cost capacitive (LCC) soil moisture sensors show promise for precision agriculture. Field calibration, especially soil-specific or one-point methods, is crucial for accurate soil moisture monitoring, overcoming limitations of lab-only calibrations.

Area of Science:

Agricultural Engineering
Soil Science
Sensor Technology

Background:

Low-cost capacitive (LCC) soil moisture sensors offer potential for precision agriculture and IoT systems.
Field performance and calibration transferability of LCC sensors require further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

Evaluate the field performance of laboratory-calibrated LCC sensors.
Assess practical calibration strategies for field applications.

Main Methods:

Laboratory calibration across eight soil types.
Field evaluation in four experiments with varying soil and climate conditions.
Comparison of soil-specific lab calibration, direct lab-to-field application, soil-specific field calibration, and one-point field calibration.

Keywords:

calibration field experiments irrigation management low-cost capacitance sensor soil moisture

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Main Results:

High accuracy in lab (RMSE 0.002-0.022 m³/m³), but large errors when lab calibration applied directly in field (RMSE 0.055-0.191 m³/m³).
Soil-specific field calibration achieved highest accuracy (RMSE 0.005-0.036 m³/m³).
One-point calibration significantly improved accuracy (RMSE 0.006-0.078 m³/m³) with less effort.
Performance decreased in high water content and saline conditions.

Conclusions:

LCC sensors can reliably monitor field soil moisture with appropriate calibration.
Field calibration strategies, particularly soil-specific or simplified one-point methods, are essential for accurate LCC sensor application.
Direct application of laboratory calibrations in the field is not recommended due to significant error introduction.