GroGuru Partners with AquaCheck on Breakthrough Capacitance Probe with Integrated GroGuru® WUGS (Wireless Underground System) Featuring a 10 Year Battery Life

GroGuru, a leader in strategic water management for commercial farmers, today announced the commercial launch of the first fully integrated wireless soil sensor probe for continuous root zone monitoring of annual field crops fully integrating the patented GroGuru® WUGS (wireless underground system). The initial probe has six sensors at various soil depths that measure soil moisture and temperature. The partnership between GroGuru and AquaCheck goes back to 2019 when GroGuru first launched its WUGS system as a separate communication module bundled with a standard AquaCheck probe.

The new integrated probe increases battery life from five to 10 years and simplifies installation of the probe. The joint development of the integrated probe has been underway for several months, and GroGuru has conducted numerous lab and field trials to validate the technology. GroGuru has developed a small form factor antenna technology, which has a US patent pending, that enables the integration of the GroGuru WUGS technology into a standard capacitance probe. GroGuru already has issued US and international patents on the fundamental WUGS technology.

This breakthrough product with a 10 year life enables Continuous Root Zone Monitoring (CRM) of soil and the crop, providing farmers with actionable data to make informed decisions about irrigation practices.

The GroGuru WUGS system coupled with the standard AquaCheck capacitance probe has been in field deployments on hundreds of farms for over five years with great success. The integrated probe is the next logical step in the evolution of the product offering.

"This breakthrough product with a 10 year life enables Continuous Root Zone Monitoring (CRM) of soil and the crop, providing farmers with actionable data to make informed decisions about irrigation practices. WUGS improves crop yield and reduces the total ownership cost for farmers, enhancing agricultural operations' scalability," said Patrick Henry, president and CEO of GroGuru. "Complementing the WUGS technology is GroGuru's AI-enabled Cloud-based recommendation engine, GroGuru® InSites which delivers precise irrigation guidelines through a user-friendly interface. By considering variables such as soil type, crop specifics, and current weather conditions, the system offers tailored advice on optimal watering times and quantities. This approach aids farmers in achieving maximum water efficiency, leading to increased crop yields and substantial cost savings."

"AquaCheck is excited to expand our partnership with GroGuru, and to jointly create a true technology breakthrough product for continuous root zone monitoring of broad acre row crops," said Don Van Houweling, principle at Van Wall Equipment and president of AquaCheck USA. "We have seen significant farmer adoption based on our historical partnership with GroGuru, and expect this new integrated product to simplify installation, open up new market opportunities in the US and globally, and address a growing demand for more efficient use of water and improved soil health."

"Aquacheck is excited to be partnering with GroGuru to bring out the first truly year around sensor/telemetry integrated probe utilizing GroGuru WUGS," said Arthur Pickworth, CEO of AquaCheck Pty LTD. "With a long history of providing quality soil probes, we see this as a compelling step forward in the evolution of the technology."

"A GroGuru WUGS integrated probe is a huge milestone in my more than thirty years of experience in soil moisture sensor design, field telemetry, and data interpretation that started with cabled sensors manually read in the field, leading to sensors cabled to above ground telemetry, and now to a cable-less solution," said Jeff Campbell, PhD, Chief Technology Officer of GroGuru, and the investor of the GroGuru WUGS technology. "This greatly expands the addressable market for irrigation management through ease of use, lower cost, and increased data quality and provides year-round data that extends over 10 years which is ideal for input into AI models that can dramatically improve farm management. I'm excited to see this technology enter the marketplace!"

The GroGuru solution is available for sale through GroGuru's market channel partners throughout the United States. GroGuru offers the hardware as a service bundle with GroGuru® InSites, which is an AI-enabled, Cloud-based agronomic recommendation engine that farmers can easily access on their computer, tablet, or smart phone.

About GroGuru

GroGuru, Inc. is a privately held company based in San Diego, CA, founded in 2014. GroGuru supplies precision soil and water monitoring and management systems to the commercial agriculture industry. GroGuru is all about strategic irrigation management, helping farmers make more money by increasing crop yield and more efficiently using water in a sustainable way.

GroGuru has a patented wireless underground system (WUGS) for soil monitoring, an AI-based recommendation engine in the Cloud, and an intuitive farmer-friendly user interface that farmers can access on their tablet, computer or mobile device. GroGuru sells an innovative hardware-enabled subscription-based solution for continuous root zone monitoring of the crop and soil to farmers that enables optimal crop process control, as well as a software as a service (SaaS) marketed as GroGuru® InSites.

GroGuru's patented WUGS technology enables the permanent installation of soil sensors, even in annual field crops. GroGuru has been a part of the OCTANE LaunchPad, EvoNexus, AgLaunch, the Yield Lab, SVG-Thrive and Plug & Play AgTech accelerator programs.