Assessing Subsoil Conditions with an ASABE Conform Vertical Penetrometer—Development and Evaluation

Soil is the habitat for soil organisms and associated soil physical and chemical processes. The subsoil is a large reserve of water and nutrients. Soil and subsoil are thus significantly involved in the yield capacity of a site and its resilience in the case of unfavorable weather conditions. Subsoil can also retain water in drought phases and stores carbon. In times of climate change and scarcity of resources, many scientific activities involve subsoil and require sensors to assess subsoil conditions and properties. An electrically driven penetrometer with an integrated soil water content sensor could be an appropriate tool for such applications; however, such a subsoil measurement tool does not exist. One major reason for this is that, when penetrating compacted subsoil, high penetration forces (including friction) act on the penetrating thin rod (diameter 1 cm). The development of a tractor-mounted subsoil penetrometer for depths up to 2 m is described in this study. An ASABE standard cone is implemented, which can access heavy compacted layers. The rod, which includes wires for embedding an FDI moisture sensor in the cone tip, is covered by a protection tube. The penetration resistance measurement can be performed without being influenced by shaft friction. The rod, along with the sensor, is implemented in a tower that can be shifted laterally and can take probes in a single line without moving the tractor. To confirm the quality of the developed subsoil penetrometer, a suitable evaluation method is presented. Typical arable soil (loamy silt) was filled in boxes and compacted homogeneously using a hydraulic stamp so that different setups of the penetrometer could be compared and evaluated. The evaluation concludes that the distance between the free cone tip and the protection shaft should be at least 10 cm to measure the penetration resistance of soil without being influenced by the protection tube. Furthermore, the developed penetrometer has sufficient stability and precision for accessing subsoil. In field trials, the subsoil penetrometer was compared with a standard penetrometer and has proved its suitability.