Grant Information
| Knowledge Area | Subject of Investigation | Field of Science | Percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 111 - Conservation and Efficient Use of Water | 210 - Water resources | 3100 - Management | 100% |
The work proposed here will expand on this effort by validating the previously developed smart phone irrigation apps through replicated research trials, expanding the app user base to include Alabama, and continuing extension efforts in the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama region. With the increasing price of fuel and potential restrictions on agriculture irrigation water, validation and further dissemination of these apps will be useful for the sustainability of the agriculture community by providing at-their-fingertips knowledge for improved irrigation (and water conservation) that is supported be refereed literature and potential financial savings through lower fuel costs (less pump time). It is anticipated that using the apps for better irrigation will also reduce nutrient leaching, creating an additional benefit for the grower. Scientific validation will provide additional credibility to the apps which will increase the number of clientele that use the apps for irrigation scheduling.
The work proposed here will expand on this effort by validating the previously developed smart phone irrigation apps through replicated research trials, expanding the app user base to include Alabama, and continuing extension efforts in the Florida, Georgia, and Alabama region. With the increasing price of fuel and potential restrictions on agriculture irrigation water, validation and further dissemination of these apps will be useful for the sustainability of the agriculture community by providing at-their-fingertips knowledge for improved irrigation (and water conservation) that is supported be refereed literature and potential financial savings through lower fuel costs (less pump time). It is anticipated that using the apps for better irrigation will also reduce nutrient leaching, creating an additional benefit for the grower. Scientific validation will provide additional credibility to the apps which will increase the number of clientele that use the apps for irrigation scheduling.
Field validation of the apps is needed to provide stakeholders with science-based information on the potential benefits they can expect by using the apps. This information will also allow us to promote the use of the apps to a wider audience with greater confidence. In addition to validating the overall performance of the apps, we also plan to validate the use of real-time precipitation data from the fine-resolution National Weather Service grid as in input to our models. If this proves to be a reliable solution, it should greatly improve the performance of the apps because it would allow stakeholders to use local estimates of precipitation in irrigation scheduling instead of being based primarily on water losses or ET.Research Objective 1 - Field Validation of Apps (Years 1 and 2)With this objective, we will validate the irrigation scheduling models of the Smartphone apps for citrus, cotton, peanut, and urban lawn and quantify their water conservation and crop yield benefits with two years of replicated studies. The field validation of the four apps will be conducted on UF and UGA research and education centers. The citrus app will be validated at UF's Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) in Immokalee, the cotton app at UGA's Stripling Irrigation Research Park near Camilla, the peanut app at UF's Plant Science Research and Education Unit in Citra, and the turf app at UF's Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead.At all four locations, field validation will include replicated test plots with on-site measurements of ET, rainfall, soil water content, and irrigation volumes applied. Crop yield data will also be collected. Irrigation treatments will include a standard practice and the irrigation schedule recommended by the respective app.During Year 3, we will modify and finalize apps based on findings from research objectives (1) and (2) and stakeholder feedback (see Extension objective). While improved design of Smartphone app will be led by the app's developer, all investigators will contribute to the final product through their individual reviews and evaluations of all the apps. App programming will be completed by an experienced UF app developer working closely with other AgroClimate and FAWN programmers in Gainesville, Florida.At project start, the stakeholder teams that are beta testing each app will be asked to complete a survey regarding their experience and suggestions. Each app leader will develop survey questions specific to their commodity. These questions will be designed to gain information from the stakeholders that could be used to better implement the field study trials. For example, the urban app users might be asked what their historical irrigation patterns were before obtaining the app. This could be used to establish a typical homeowner irrigation rate. Another example could be to ask the stakeholders what component of the app seems to be the least accurate? This could be used to add some instrumentation or measurement to the field trials. This process opens communication to prevent us from overlooking some aspect that could easily be included in the validation process and create a better product.
Target Audience
Agricultural producers and homeowners of Florida and Georgia.
Changes / Problems
Nothing Reported
Training & Professional Development
Nothing Reported
Dissemination Streams
Turf app One limitation of the app is the exclusion of site-specific rainfall. Another limitation is that the app is not directly connected to the automatic irrigation controller so the user must manually implement a schedule change at the controller. Thus, some notifications for bypassing irrigation events due to predicted or measured rainfall may not be implemented in the irrigation schedule by the user. Direct operation of the automatic controller by the app would likely improve water savings. Cotton app The Cotton App's geographical footprint is currently limited to Georgia and Florida because the app uses data from GAEMN and FAWN. Adding weather networks from other states which provide the meteorological data needed to calculate ETo using the Penman-Monteith equation requires additional resources but is relatively straightforward. Discussions are ongoing with two state weather networks. Another limitation to use of the Cotton App in other states is that the Kc curve currently used in the model was calibrated to environmental conditions found in southern Georgia and northern Florida using varieties developed for this environment. Consequently the Kc curve may not be appropriate for the environmental conditions and varieties in other regions. To make the Cotton App useable across the U.S. cotton belt will require a library of Kc curves as well as widespread access to meteorological data. One solution to the meteorological data problem may be to use national gridded meteorological datasets offered by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service (NOAA NWS). We evaluated the NOAA NWS NOAA NWS also recently released an experimental forecast reference ET (FRET) tool http://1.usa.gov/1Poz2va which we evaluated during the 2015 growing season for 20 locations in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. FRET appears to overestimate daily ET when unusually low ET is calculated from weather station data. Overestimating ET during low ET days erodes the advantage that the Cotton App has over irrigation scheduling tools like the Checkbook Method. A trial version of the Cotton App using the NOAA NWS 4 km grid quantitative precipitation estimation and FRET is currently under development and will be compared to the released version of the Cotton App in several locations in southern Georgia and northern Florida during the 2016 growing season. Citrus app A two year greenhouse study of irrigation requirements determined that citrus trees affected with Greening disease (HLB) use 18% to 24% less water than trees unaffected by this disease. The reduction in water requirements was found to be due to reduced leaf area associated with the thinner canopies of diseased trees. In a second field study, HLB affected trees were irrigated with the same water amount of water on a weekly or monthly basis but applied at daily or less frequency. The study found that more consistently high soil moisture resulted in less tree water stress and better yields. Thus, these data caused us to implement a daily irrigation option in the citrus app to provide the application amounts for both daily irrigation and less frequent applications based on allowable soil water depletions used prior to Citrus Greening entering Florida. Peanut app None
Next Reporting Steps
The project has ended. Howqever, addtional apps are being developed for blueberry and other crops.
Target Audience
Our educational objective is to further disseminate the methodology of Smartphone science-based apps to professional and student audiences. Our specific Education objectives are: 1. Further disseminate the methodology of Smartphone science-based apps to professional audiences through publication of this process and its nuances and conference presentations. 2. Develop teaching modules which will be incorporated into precision ag and irrigation courses at UF and UGA and made available nationwide through our website as webcasts. The target audience for the train-the-trainer will be county agents and state specialists. Content will include information on outcomes of the replicated field experiments, identification of any modifications made based on experimental results, irrigation scheduling, description of the tools (tailored to the audience), and experimental learning. The experimental learning component will consist of hands-on practice with the Smartphone apps. We will use this forum to provide knowledge and "how-to's" regarding the mobile apps. All app materials (e.g., presentations, extension documents, and websites) will include the findings from the replicated field experiments.During year 3, we will conduct a series of regional and national workshops to expose our Smartphone apps to a larger audience. The workshops will be scheduled in conjunction with the meetings of regional or national commodity organizations. A total of 7 grower workshops and 2 agent in-service training sessions were held in 2016.
Changes / Problems
No problems were encountered.
Training & Professional Development
Theapps were modified based on findings from research objectives and stakeholder feedback. Grower workshops and in-service training events for county agents and specialists, stakeholders (local, regional, and national venues), were developed and a dedicated web site to provide validation results.
Dissemination Streams
15 grower meetings providing information to more that 2000 growers were presented in 2015/2016.
Next Reporting Steps
This was the final year of the grant. <br><br>
<br>What was accomplished under these goals? Simple water balance models for citrus, cotton, peanut, and urban lawn were developed as part of a 2011 NIWQP grant for Florida and Georgia are being validated in replicated research plots. The goal of this project was to validate water conservation using smart phone irrigation apps under commercial production conditions on a regional basis (Florida and Georgia). The citrus, cotton, peanut, and urban lawn apps were validatedby quantifying their water conservation and crop yield benefits with two years of replicated studies at grower sites or research centers in Florida and Georgia. <br><br><b>Publications</b><br>
Target Audience
Our educational objective is to further disseminate the methodology of Smartphone science-based apps to professional and student audiences. Our specific Education objectives are: 1. Further disseminate the methodology of Smartphone science-based apps to professional audiences through publication of this process and its nuances and conference presentations. 2. Develop teaching modules which will be incorporated into precision ag and irrigation courses at UF and UGA and made available nationwide through our website as webcasts. The target audience for the train-the-trainer will be county agents and state specialists. Content will include information on outcomes of the replicated field experiments, identification of any modifications made based on experimental results, irrigation scheduling, description of the tools (tailored to the audience), and experimental learning. The experimental learning component will consist of hands-on practice with the Smartphone apps. We will use this forum to provide knowledge and "how-to's" regarding the mobile apps. All app materials (e.g., presentations, extension documents, and websites) will include the findings from the replicated field experiments.During year 3, we will conduct a series of regional and national workshops to expose our Smartphone apps to a larger audience. The workshops will be scheduled in conjunction with the meetings of regional or national commodity organizations. Report
Changes / Problems
Nothing Reported
Training & Professional Development
A total of 3 in-service training sesions for extension agents were provided in 2015 along withsix grower meetings to discuss citrus, cotton and turf irrigation scheduling using theSmartphone apps in Florida and Georgia.
Dissemination Streams
Nothing Reported
Next Reporting Steps
Grower training sessions are planned for 2016 to provide results of field validation experiements to growers in Florida and Georgis. Also, content on irrigaiton scheduling using the Smartphone apps are being added to undergraduate and graduate courses. <br><br>
<br>What was accomplished under these goals? •The Citrus App requires information on tree spacing, soil water holding capacity, irrigation system output, and ET source. •Water balance estimated using day of year and phenology-based Kc. •Evaluation is being conducted at three commercial citrus orchards in central and south Florida. •The experiment is arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications. •Three irrigation scheduling treatments for conventional irrigation were as follows: 1) Citrus App, 2) Grower determined irrigation, 3) Current recommended scheduling. •Use of the citrus app consistently resulted in lower water use. •Citrus with Greening disease require more consistent soil moisture necessitating a daily irrigation option and reduced allowable water depletions •The Cotton App requires the user to select from seven generic soil types available and enter the default irrigation amount. •It can be used with drip or overhead sprinkler irrigation. •The Cotton App does not deliver irrigation application recommendations. However, the user can utilize the root zone soil water deficit information to make appropriate irrigation decisions. •In the model, changes in Kc are driven by accumulated heat units commonly referred to as growing degree days (GDDs) •Replicated field plots at two locations in southern Georgia were during 2013 and 2014 were used to validate the Cotton App. In both years, the Cotton App reduced water use and produced at least the same yields as other scheduling methods. •The Cotton App was Released in 2014. Since its release it has been used to schedule irrigation in 497 different fields by 224 users in Georgia and Florida. The model predictions matched the observed soil moisture curves reasonably well. •The Turf App was designed to calculate irrigation time an irrigation system should operate given minimum user inputs and real-time weather data. •Default values are available for most inputs but users have the option to modify these based on their knowledge of the irrigation system. •Plots consisted of 20.9 m2 with 0.61 m buffers between plots of established St. Augustine grass with quarter-circle pop-up irrigation head in each corner with matched precipitation rotator nozzles. •Water volumes applied were measured for each plot using multi-jet water meters. •The experiment consisted of four treatments: 1) automatic timer, 2) automatic timer with smartphone app irrigation schedule, 3) automatic timer with ET controller 1, and 4) automatic timer with ET controller 2, respectively arranged in a randomized block design. •The Turf App irrigation schedule was similar to the ET controllers with savings always significantly greater than the time-based treatment with varying similarities to the two ET controllers. <br><br><b>Publications</b><br>
Target Audience
Our educational objective is to further disseminate the methodology of Smartphone science-based apps to professional and student audiences. Our specific Education objectives are: Further disseminate the methodology of Smartphone science-based apps to professional audiences through publication of this process and its nuances and conference presentations. Develop teaching modules which will be incorporated into precision ag and irrigation courses at UF and UGA and made available nationwide through our website as webcasts. The target audience for the train-the-trainer will be county agents and state specialists. Content will include information on outcomes of the replicated field experiments, identification of any modifications made based on experimental results, irrigation scheduling, description of the tools (tailored to the audience), and experimental learning. The experimental learning component will consist of hands-on practice with the Smartphone apps. We will use this forum to provide knowledge and "how-to's" regarding the mobile apps. All app materials (e.g., presentations, extension documents, and websites) will include the findings from the replicated field experiments.During year 3, we will conduct a series of regional and national workshops to expose our Smartphone apps to a larger audience. The workshops will be scheduled in conjunction with the meetings of regional or national commodity organizations.
Changes / Problems
Nothing Reported
Training & Professional Development
Training is being developed for years 2 and 3 of the grant.
Dissemination Streams
Refereed journal articles are being developed for apps with appropriate data.
Next Reporting Steps
Validation of the app resutls will continue for citrus, turf, strawberry and cotton. Validation plots will be established for vegetables and peanut in 2015. In-service training of extension, Florida Department of Agriculture adn Consumer Services, and water management districts will be conducted in 2015. Growermeetings on use of the appsare being planned for later this year. <br><br>
<br>What was accomplished under these goals? Support groups were established for the citrus, turf, strawberry and cotton apps. These support groups are comprised of growers, irrigation operators, and water management district personnel. Each person of the support group will report any problems encountered using the apps or suggested changes to simplify or improve use or the apps. To date, several suggestions have been received and implemented in the apps. The two consistent suggestions were 1) use of growing degree days to determine crop coefficients (Kc) which had been contemplated but not avaialble for some crops, and 2) inclusion of time needed to pressurize the irrigation system, this time was to be added by the irrigation to irrigation operator to the time recommended by the app but a function was added to the app that preformed this function. Validation plots were established for citrus, turf, strawberry and cotton apps in 2014. Data from these plots indicate water savings of 25% or more. Validation plots for the vegetable and peanut apps will be developed in 2015. <br><br><b>Publications</b><br>