These instruments, along with ET charts will provide a fairly accurate estimate of irrigation needs. Graph soil moisture readings. We believe that the most important aspect of soil moisture monitoring is to create a graph of the readings. Even if you use a shovel and your fingers for measuring soil moisture, you can graph the readings. This will improve your irrigation accuracy.
Some plants handle drought stress better than others.
Barley uses less water than wheat. Sugarbeets are able to extract moisture from a greater depth than most crops. Crops such as Russet Burbank potatoes suffer greatly in quality when drought stressed, Shepody potatoes not as much but still more than other crops. Russet Burbank looses tuber grade and fry color with water stress. Shepody and Umatilla Russet varieties loose total yield.