Trellis' Irrigation Recommendations

Trellis' Irrigation Recommendations

What are irrigation recommendations, exactly?

For users with Trellis' soil moisture sensors, Trellis’ irrigation recommendations provide suggestions for when to irrigate their field. Bottom line, we use current data from your sensors to predict when your field with reach a trigger point. This trigger point can be customized for your particular application, allowing you to make the right irrigation decisions. This article will show you how we make recommendations and how to update your Dashboard.


There are three major components that are involved in the irrigation recommendation system: the field-level moisture chart, field-level moisture prediction, and the irrigation recommendation itself. 

Field-level Moisture Chart

We wanted to help farmers see how their fields were doing without having to click into every sensor in the field. We did just that with our exciting new feature, the field-level moisture chart!

The chart displays moisture data from past to present by averaging the soil moisture for all of the sensors in that field. It also averages the soil moisture thresholds for the sensors in that field so you can determine the state of the field as a whole.


You can adjust the way sensors are weighted within the field by updating the Field Weights for a particular field.

The soil moisture thresholds come from the soil texture you select for each sensor, as well as the Sensor Management Plans that they are using.

The field-level moisture chart helps you see how often throughout the season the field has been in the sufficient moisture zone (the green zone in the chart above), the zone in which the crop will experience the least amount of stress. Just like on the sensor graph, you can also see the rainfall and irrigation amounts displayed with the soil moisture. 

The sufficient moisture zone is your target zone to effectively manage irrigation: avoid irrigating too little or too much. 

Field-level Moisture Prediction

Now that we know the current average soil moisture content for the field, we compare the overall field moisture to the field’s trigger point. If the average field moisture is already at the trigger point, you should consider irrigating immediately. However, if the soil moisture is currently sufficient, when do you decide when to irrigate? To help decide, we estimate what the field-level soil moisture will be for the next five days. If the estimated soil moisture hits your field's trigger point over the next five days, we recommend irrigating on that particular day.


In order to accurately estimate what the field-level soil moisture will be, we use our knowledge base of over 300,000 soil moisture measurements and compare to the sensors in your field.


In particular, we consider the following information to make these projections:

  • Current soil moisture value

  • Soil texture

  • Crop type

  • Crop age (days since planting / season start)

  • Current weather conditions



We consider all of these factors for each of the sensors in your field to predict how each sensor will respond over the next five days, then show the prediction on the field-level soil moisture chart, represented by a dashed line.



Irrigation Recommendations

We want to give you an easy way to know when to irrigate each field, so we tell you in plain English :) 
The recommendation is on the Fields Page (the homepage of the Dashboard), as shown below:




The recommendation is also on the Field Info section of each field:



It's supposed to rain all week, why is it saying I should irrigate tomorrow? 

Our irrigation recommendations assume you won't apply irrigation and it won't rain. This means that our recommendations will change from day-to-day if it rains or you apply irrigation.


Also, sometimes there is a delay in the sensors detecting added moisture, so there may be small delays in projections being updated. This is helpful because later in the season, rain or irrigation may be used by roots closer to the surface and may not even make it down to the lower part of the root system, meaning you may need to irrigate more.

Why am I not getting a recommendation?

If we are missing information about your field that we need to create a recommendation, we may be unable to provide a recommendation. In those circumstances, we will provide you with specific messages to help you understand what changes you, your sales rep, or your dealer need to make to get your recommendation.



As you can see in the screenshot above, if possible, we will provide a recommendation using whatever information we have. We will use all of the information we have available to make a recommendation and make sure you are informed about what information we are using.

You can help make future recommendations more accurate!

With every sensor in the ground and every day of the growing season, we continue to collect more data that helps us improve our predictions and help you learn more about your fields. We still need your help to make sure we are getting the best possible information.


Below is a list of things we can use to improve irrigation recommendations for this season and future seasons.

  • Enter your planting date / season start date: Entering the planting date within a week of the actual day helps if you don’t remember it exactly (it was a busy time after all!).

  • Enter your harvest date: Entering the harvest date or the planned harvest date for the crop before you archive it at the end of the season. Combined with the plant date, this helps us see exactly how the moisture changed throughout the entire season.

  • Log your irrigation: If you don't have a rain gauge in your field or don't use overhead irrigation, entering your irrigation events will help us understand how the soil moisture changes when you irrigate.



    • Related Articles

    • How does Trellis’ system help me increase yield?

      Under-irrigating and over-watering can significantly impact a crop’s yield potential. Trellis’ system gives growers and consultants the moisture data they need to decide whether they should irrigate or not, potentially saving growers up to 50% on ...

    • How do I contact Trellis for help?

      To contact Trellis for help, you have 4 options: Call us at 678-551-2871   Chat with us by clicking the ‘Chat’ button at the bottom corner of  our website , the Trellis Dashboard or the Trellis Distributor Portal   Send us an email ...

    • How do I edit/log/delete a rainfall or irrigation event?

      To log an irrigation event, click (or tap) on the field where you applied irrigation. (Haven't created a field yet? Click here to learn more.) Click the blue droplet in the field details summary at the top of the page: From there, you'll see the ...

    • What do Trellis' soil moisture sensors measure?

      Our sensors measure soil moisture tension, a measure of how difficult it is for the plant to extract water from the soil.  Soil moisture tension is a negative pressure value, measured in kilopascals (kPa). The lower the number, the harder it is for ...

    • What do the numbers mean on the Fields page of the Trellis dashboard app?

      Watch the video below for an explanation of the numbers on the Fields page of the Trellis dashboard app.