In this study, we addressed agricultural labor shortages by developing a smart farming sensor module that integrated low-cost environmental sensors with a multipoint soil moisture sensor to predict broccoli growth, plant height ( PH ), and leaf count (L n ). Multivariable regression confirmed that integrated solar radiation ( S ) was the most dominant factor, although broccoli growth involved a complex interplay of solar radiation, optimal temperature, humidity, and soil moisture. More importantly, the analysis revealed that the middle layer soil moisture (u m ) exhibited the strongest positive contribution to PH . This finding indicated that water availability in the main root zone was essential for vertical growth and highlighted the indispensability of multipoint sensing over conventional single-depth measurements to accurately model the intricate relationship between soil moisture and crop development. Moving forward, we aim to leverage the superiority of multipoint data to construct a sophisticated growth prediction model, thereby contributing to the optimization of irrigation and temperature management in smart farming systems.
Ogawa et al. (2026) studied this question.
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