Soil Moisture in Horticultural Systems - Soil Association - Webinar

Описание: As we come out of a dry season, the need to understand how our crops utilise water is increasingly important. This webinar explores the benefits of using soil moisture probes to understand moisture uptake by plants and how to utilise the information for irrigation scheduling and crop management decisions.

Carolyn Coxe, Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association, speaks with John Taylor, farm manager at Pollybell Farms, and Peter White from Soil Moisture Sense, about how best to measure and utilise data from both soil moisture probes and on farm weather stations to make informed crop management decisions.

Our speakers:
John Taylor, Pollybell Farms
John Taylor has over 20 years experience of growing organic vegetables for the UK retail and wholesale markets across Scotland, Norfolk and more recently Nottinghamshire. Since joining Pollybell Farms in 2015, John has been integral in refocusing the farming businesses on delivering consistent quality and availability to their customers to grow the organic market for brassicas and leeks. Pollybell Farms is a family owned estate growing organic vegetables, cereals and integrating cover crops for fertility building throughout the rotation. John advocates attention to detail on water management, soil health and crop management as key drivers for the farm becoming resilient in the rapidly changing climate.

Peter White, Director of Soil Moisture Sense
Peter White has been working with sensing technology hardware and data interpretation since 1995. In 2011 he started Soil Moisture Sense with Tim Blyth and Jonathan Munslow, combining their experience to provide new solutions for crop monitoring in the UK. Soil Moisture Sense is one of the UK's leading providers of crop data and decision support services, with over 30 years of experience in crop monitoring. Their wide range of solutions for crop and weather monitoring are backed by expert data analysis and near real-time updates. They provide an end to end service, including system builds, installation, online date display, daily emails, on-site visits, and regular maintenance and repairs as required.

Carolyn Coxe, Head of Horticulture at the Soil Association:
Carolyn brings vast knowledge and practical experience of growing produce for the retail and wholesale markets to the Soil Association's Farming and Land Use team. This combined with experience in estate management for a mixed organic farming business whilst managing the implementation of agri-environmental schemes. Carolyn has a BSc(Hons) Environmental Management and is BASIS/FACTS qualified. She has a keen interest in improving the farmed environment to produce sustainable produce suited to changing market demands.

Recorded on 15 October 2025.

Find out more about our on-going programme of events
https://www.soilassociation.org/farme...

This event is part of our Farm to Fork Partnership funded by Ocado Retail.