Soil moisture sensors

[freeon]

Are there any soil moisture sensors available that could be integrated with HS. Something to monitor soil moisture in my flower beds? I did a search here and only found really old post.

[ksum]

I have Ecowitt soil sensors integrated using AKWeather. You can also integrate them with mcsMQTT or Node-RED. You would also need a Ecowitt GWGW1100 gateway to receive the sensor data. You could have up to 8 soil sensors per gateway.

[wkrasner]

I use esp32 board with a soil humidity sensor that transmits humidity through json post to a virtual device. If you want more info let me lnow

[Wade]

Like Karl, I use the Ecowitt WH51 (https://www.amazon.com/ECOWITT-Moist...ef_=ast_sto_dp) with the GW1100 gateway--although in my case via mcsMQTT. They work quite well, and battery life is surprisingly good. I used them extensively for zone-by-zone irrigation control through the mcsSprinklers plugin, although have since gone back to a more traditional day/time scheduled approach.

I have a few on the shelf I took out of service that I'd sell cheap, but it looks like you're in Canada so shipping would probably make it not worthwhile.

[Bigstevep]

Ambient Weather has moisture sensors that work with some of their controllers and the AK Weather plugin. I use a few of them and they work well.

[ksum]

Ambient Weather has moisture sensors that work with some of their controllers and the AK Weather plugin. I use a few of them and they work well.

Ambient Weather, Ecowitt, Fine Offset and others seem to be clones or the same manufacturer.

[Michael McSharry]

I find the Ecowitt WH51 to be the most attractive solution with a battery that can be changed and will last for a year or more. These are capacitive so do not degrade over time as the cheaper ones that have metalic contact with the soil. The sensor itself can be obtained for a few dollars and integrated with an ESP32/ESP8266 using Tasmota. I have this Tasmota solution installed in a greenhouse because the power for the microprocessor is readily available. Since they are the same sensor the results are similar between WH51 and Tasmota. In both solutions I use mcsMQTT for the integration with HS.

There are other solutions such as Vegitronix that uses a wired ADC input and RF solution by CAO Gagets. Both provide good results, but the CAO one has a built-in battery that cannot be changed and last only a year so you need to buy a new sensor each year.

For more industrial application then Watermark or Irrometer have been around for many years. They are wired solutions so the interface is not as easy. The Davis Weatherstation uses the Watermark sensor.

[freeon]

Looks like I have a few options. If I go with GW1100 gateway what is this wire for? Looks like the moisture sensor is wireless so gateway can be mounted indoors?

[ksum]

That is a humidity and temperature sensor to provide the indoor readings.

[devanb]

Has anyone used:

https://www.amazon.com/Moisture-Temp...U9GKJRXVO&th=1

[Michael McSharry]

I did a search on zigbee2mqtt supported devices site and did not find it. Likely not yet supported on any HA system. I have worked the the Zigbee2MQTT folks for integration of a new device a few years ago and it was a positive experience. You could try the same route. Zigbee2MQTT is used by HS4 ZigbeePlus plugin and HS3/HS4 mcsMQTT plugin.

[ksum]

One of the reviews on the linked Amazon page states it is working with zigbee2MQTT.

[prsmith777]

I use the ambient weather version which is basically the same as the ecowitt. These are more costly but I already had the weather station so I went this route. I’m on Hs3 and the sensors don’t work on the Ambient plugin. But they do work on the Home Assistant integration so I just push the data to Homeseer via MQTT.

I have four sensors in our house plants. I wrote a script to keep track of when the plants were last watered and remind us if we forgot to water them after a week or if they get too dry. I use device history plugin to keep track of moisture data

[prsmith777]

example of plant page

[devanb]

I was looking for something for the lawn and given zigbee frequency is 2.4 ghz and ecowitt is in the 900 mhz range, I'd probably getting better long distance performance from the ecowitt solution.