Choosing simpler soil probes after a decade in the field
Felipe Rodríguez has worked with soil moisture probes for ten years. His farm — walnuts, avocados, strawberries in Chile — kept colliding with the complexity of legacy systems. He chose SoilSense, then became its distributor for Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.
Chile
- Crops
- Walnuts · Avocados · Strawberries
- Plantations started
- 2009
- Distributor for
- CL · PE · CO · MX
Ten years of soil probes, and one frustration that kept repeating.
Walnuts are vulnerable to root fungus when irrigation is mismanaged — bad irrigation can mean dead trees. During fruit development, undershooting water means undersized nuts and a lower-grade harvest. Felipe runs Agricola Santa Inés de Chile, with plantations going back to 2009: walnut trees first, then avocados, then strawberries.
After more than a decade with soil moisture probes, Felipe's recurring frustration was that interpreting the data required a level of training that didn't translate to a working farm crew. Probes existed. Probes-plus-decisions-on-a-phone were harder to find. Connectivity was usually a separate vendor on top of the probe — extra cost, extra complexity.
SoilSense ships probe, datalogger, connectivity, and decision software as one package. Everything routes through his phone, and his team receives irrigation alerts via WhatsApp directly. Installation doesn't need special tools or expertise — which matters when you're relocating sensors with seasonal crops like strawberries. Felipe found the case so convincing that he became SoilSense's distributor for Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico (disclosed openly here).
“Farmers are looking for simple, easy-to-understand solutions that can operate in the field. SoilSense points in that direction.”
Convinced enough to take the system to the region.
Felipe describes SoilSense as more affordable than the systems he previously evaluated, with results he considers just as good. The integrated nature removes a category of failures — missing connectivity, mismatched vendor support, complicated installs. More monitoring points become economically viable, which is what actually drives better water and energy management in Chilean agriculture, where energy is a significant part of production cost. The case stood up well enough that distribution followed.
Considering SoilSense for a fruit or tree-nut operation?
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll size the system to your crops, soil, and the realities of your local connectivity — and walk through how decisions move from probe to phone.