ASHS 2025 Conference

Modern agricultural systems, notably hydroponics, utilize digital technologies and precision farming techniques for automated, sensor-driven cultivation. These systems apply real-time environmental monitoring to enhance plant growth parameters and operational efficiency. Nevertheless, sensor inaccuracies can undermine data integrity due to malfunctions or environmental influences. Thus, this is required to obtain comprehensive environmental analysis and precise data management protocols to maintain system integrity. This study assessed the sensors' reliability by evaluating algal coverage metrics in hydroponic tomato cultivation. A total of one hundred seventeen sensors designed to measure pH, temperature, humidity, and electrical conductivity (EC) were deployed within a greenhouse environment. Following a duration of three months, only 39 sensors were classified into two separate categories: 22 demonstrating considerable algal coverage (≥90%) and 17 exhibiting minimal coverage (~10%). Sensors characterized by high algal coverage recorded substantially increased substrate humidity (85.6% vs. 41.9%) and EC values (774 µS/cm vs. 331 µS/cm) in contrast to their counterparts with lowered algae coverage. However, tomato yields did not significantly change between the two categories, indicating that the plants accommodate the changing environmental conditions. These results suggest that algal coverage may serve as an indirect metric for evaluating localized environmental parameters—particularly humidity and EC levels—and may also hold potential value in assessing the reliability of sensor data.