Watering and Irrigation Schedule
Set out what waters what, how, and how often, then keep a dated record through the season alongside the system checks that stop a blocked emitter going unnoticed.
GG-06 2 pages
Garden and growing · GG-24
Soil Moisture Sensor Reading Log
A free printable soil moisture log: each tensiometer or probe registered with its zone, depth and your own trigger, then readings beside rain and watering.
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2 pages. Choose your paper size — both versions are laid out identically, so neither one gets shrunk to fit.
Print it and write on it
Fill it in type and save
The fillable versions have real form fields — open them in any PDF reader, type into them and save. Printing help.
What this sheet is for
Water when the soil says so, reading every sensor beside the rain and the watering. Over a season the log also shows how each zone dries out, and whether your trigger needs moving.
Who it is for
Gardeners, allotment holders and small growers using tensiometers, moisture blocks or probes to decide when to water.
How to use it
- Number each sensor once in the register, with its type, zone, depth and the units its meter reads in.
- Write your own watering trigger for each sensor, from the maker's instructions or your own experience.
- Read every sensor at the same time of day and write each reading under its number, with any rain since the last reading.
- Note the watering you gave and any servicing, such as a tensiometer refilled or a probe re-seated.
- Use page two to note crop stage, weather and any change you make to a trigger.
What is on the sheet
2 pages, in this order:
Page 1
Printed under the title: Each sensor numbered once with its zone and depth, then every reading set beside the rain and the watering, so the decision to water comes from what the soil says rather than from habit or the calendar.
Your trigger, not ours. No reading is printed here as the point to water. What a number means depends on the instrument, the soil and the crop, so write your own trigger for each sensor in the register, from the maker's instructions or your own experience, and change it as the season teaches you.
Write-on lines: Garden, plot or field · Season or year · Meter or logger used
Sensor register — numbered once; the number heads a column in the readings
Table, 6 rows: Sensor · Type · Zone or bed · Depth · Installed · Units · Water at · Crop
Readings — at the same time of day each time; a column per sensor
Table, 19 rows: Date · Time · S1 · S2 · S3 · S4 · S5 · S6 · Rain · Watered · Serviced · By
Page 2
Crop stage, weather and trigger changes — what was going on when the readings changed
Table, 6 rows: Date · Zone or sensor · Crop stage · Weather spell · Trigger changed
Questions
Why is there no reading printed as the point to water?
Because a number only means something for that instrument in that soil with that crop. Tensiometers, moisture blocks and probes read on different scales, and a sandy bed dries very differently from clay. The maker's instructions and your own results give the trigger; the register has a box for it.
Why record rain and watering on the same line?
So a jump in a reading can be read against what caused it. Without the rain and the watering beside it, a wet reading after a storm looks the same as one after a long soak from the hose.
How is this different from the watering and irrigation schedule?
The schedule is the plan: which zone is watered, how and how often. This log is the measurement that tells you whether the plan is right, sensor by sensor.
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