A smartphone application for estimating irrigation frequency and runtime for Californiancrops based on the water balance approach

Abstract

Optimizing irrigation ensures that plants receive the right amount of water without any loss from deep percolation or drainage. However, non-professional crop growers, such as gardeners and garden hobbyists, have limited access to data-driven solutions to optimize irrigation cycles. This app aims to fill this gap by providing Irrigation Frequency and Runtime for a range of selected crops in California. The evapotranspiration-based smartphone app uses locally calibrated crop coefficients, Maximum Allowed Depletion factors, and weather data to determine the average daily irrigation runtime. It is also the first smartphone application that calculates effective rainfall for any selected location in California. In the future, the app could be applied to other U.S. states.