SoiLiNQ - News & EventsSoiLiNQ - News & Eventshttp://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_eventsMon, 08 Jun 2026 20:17:06 -0400http://zoho.com/sites/<![CDATA[When the Rain Doesn't Come]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/when-the-rain-doesnt-comeFarming is inherently risky due to the water needs and sensitivity to dry conditions of many crops. SoiLiNQ's integrated platform of long range moisture sensors and smart irrigation system offer farmers a practical way to manage this in the face of changing climate.]]>

Pumpkins, Melons, and Squash - Oh My!

Pumpkins, like many vegetables, have surprisingly high water content: cucumbers, melons, squash, tomatoes, and many more, can be up to 90% water by weight.


This past growing season, parts of Ontario received only 50% to 70% of their normal rainfall. Combined with record heat and prolonged dry spells, the conditions simply weren't right for any crop that needs consistent moisture from spring through fall.


Farmers reported one of the lowest yields in 30 years for certain water-sensitive crops. 


Pumpkins appeared to lead the way.


For example, one pumpkin farm saw a 50% drop in production; another watched their harvest of a particular variety fall by 86%.


Apples and Sweet Corn also saw sharp drops in output, but they're far from alone: Moderate to Severe drought conditions were observed across Canada in 2025. The rest of the world isn't in much better shape.


This is the new reality of farming water-dependent vegetables in an increasingly unpredictable climate.


More on this past growing season here.

Photo by Lena Polishko on Unsplash
Photo by: Mary Jane Duford on Unsplash

The Farmer's Gamble

Farming has always involved risk.  Vegetables with high water content carry a particular kind of uncertainty - they need steady moisture through germination, flowering, and fruit development. 


    • A dry spell during any of these windows affects final yield
    • A heat wave during the fruiting stage set can stunt growth permanently

What's more, the growing season for these veggies is particularly long - pumpkins can take up to 110 days from seed to harvest. 


That’s three months of hoping the rain comes at the right time, in the right amount. 


That can be very hard to manage across large areas. As one farmer in this article noted, the rain they received was spotty at best: One spot might get a timely shower, while three miles away the fields got nothing.


The signs of stress are not always obvious above ground. A plant can look fine while its roots struggle in dry soil. By the time leaves wilt, the fruit may have already halted growth.

What This Means for Vegetable Farming

Vegetable crops operate on thin margins between sufficient moisture and crop failure.


The challenges facing pumpkin farmers are not unique; these vulnerabilities are shared by many water-sensitive vegetable crops.


As mentioned, squash, melons, cucumbers, and tomatoes all require consistent moisture for uniform fruit development. 


Peppers and eggplants are sensitive to drought stress during flowering. 


Sweet corn needs adequate water during silking and tasseling to fill kernels properly.

Photo by Stefan Riedl on Unsplash

For all of these crops, the same dynamics apply:

  • Timing - a dry week during flowering affects yield differently than a dry week during early growth.
  • Soil variability -  sandy soils dry faster. Clay soils hold moisture longer. Slopes dry out more quickly than low areas.
  • Visibility - a farmer cannot fix what they cannot measure below the surface.

What Can Farmers Do?

While there is no substitute for rain, there are tools and methods that can help farmers make better decisions to improve their growing season.


Farmers can incorporate water reservoirs such as ponds, tanks, or small dams to collect and store rainwater during wetter periods, helping them cope with climate variability and inconsistent rainfall. 

Photo by: Loic Leray on Unsplash

These reservoirs provide a reliable water source for irrigation during dry spells, reducing the risk of crop failure and improving farm productivity. 


Reservoirs can help recharge groundwater, support livestock needs, and strengthen the farm’s resilience against droughts and changing weather patterns caused by climate change.


By using proper lining materials, drainage systems, and water conservation practices, farmers can minimize water loss and ensure a steady supply throughout the growing season. 

Photo by: Roger Starnes Sr on Unsplash

Water Efficiency as a Constraint

Reservoirs of all kinds are helpful, but simply stockpiling water really isn't enough.


The critical requirement is to ensure water is delivered where it's needed, when it's needed.


This is far more challenging that it seems, especially at scale: collecting consistent, reliable data over long ranges is hard!


SoiLiNQ's integrated platform is designed to address this issue directly.

Photo by: Nebular on Unsplash

Data-Based Automation

One of SoiLiNQ's major goals is to provide Agriculture Professionals with optimizations and options:
    • Irrigate only when needed, and without human input
    • Catch developing drought stress early, and at scale
    • Prioritize water delivery - protect key growing stages for crops
    • Document conditions and actions for crop insurance or disaster assistance claims


Eliminating risk here is not possible, the weather is always unpredictable.


However, when equipped with better information farmers can respond earlier, waste fewer resources (like water,  fuel, and time), and protect more of their crop.


They Key Takeaway

The 2025 pumpkin harvest sent a clear signal:
Crops that depend on consistent moisture will continue to be under pressure when rain becomes unreliable.


For farmers, the question is not whether the weather will change - it’s knowing how to see what is happening within the soil in time to take action.

Soil moisture sensors do not control the rain.  They simply help farmers make the most of what falls - or what they pump.


In a year when the rain doesn't come, that visibility makes all the difference.  


See how SoiLiNQ is changing the story.

]]>Thu, 21 May 2026 14:19:55 +0000<![CDATA[The Decline of Urban Wetlands]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/the-decline-of-urban-wetlandsWetlands are vital for cities but are quietly degrading due to pollution, salinity, and water imbalance, harming soil, plants, and animals in a fragile chain reaction. Monitoring soil conditions with sensors enables early detection and smarter, proactive conservation to prevent ecosystem collapse.]]>

Wetlands play a critical role in flood mitigation, water purification, and biodiversity support - all very important services to urban areas. 

Yet they constantly face threats from pollution, sediment buildup, and disrupted water levels caused by rapid urbanization.


This creates habitat loss.


At the surface, wetlands may look healthy from being surrounded by patches of vegetation and wildlife.
The soil however tells a different story: a slow, silent decline in habitat quality. 

Unhealthy wetland soil doesn't just affect the mud. It affects every living thing that depends on it.

Flora - the plants that define a wetland are often the first to suffer. Cattails, sedges, and other aquatic vegetation depend on specific soil conditions.


Fauna follow close behind:

  • Amphibians like frogs and salamanders need stable moisture and specific water chemistry to breed. 

  • Macroinvertebrates like dragonfly nymphs, caddisflies, and mayflies - live in the soil and water interface; when soil quality degrades, their populations crash. 

Interconnected Systems are Fragile

Soil chemistry shifts slightly → a few plant species decline → insects lose their food source → Birds stop nesting.


Ecosystems foster intricate relationships among its inhabitants that are sensitive to slight imbalances, making them vulnerable to even the smallest disturbances.

Consequences

Each spring, winter road salt washes into wetlands - the first signs of too much salinity are wilting plants and declining amphibian populations.

Nutrient overload follows - runoff rich in nitrogen and phosphorus fuels algal blooms that drain oxygen and block sunlight, turning clear aquatic habitats into green, stagnant pools. 


Moisture patterns also shift - upstream development disrupts water flow - too little dries wetlands out, too much floods them. Both extremes destroy habitat, but moisture sensors can flag the imbalance before it becomes irreversible.


Stressed systems invite invasive species - Balsam and Loosestrife take hold, further altering soil chemistry and crowding out native life.


These failures aren’t due to a lack of intent - they stem from a lack of visibility. Wetlands are living systems, and managing them effectively requires seeing what’s changing beneath the surface.

Improving Wetland Management

Recent advances in soil sensors - measuring moisture temperature, and more - have proven that continuous data transforms how we manage living systems.  Not all products are suitable; managing living systems from a lab will only get you so far, so systems with long reach and rich data become important. 


For example, SoiLiNQ has a very long reach, collects more data per unit than any other sensor on the market, and is projected to monitor on-site for 10 years or more. That makes it perfect for low cost, long term, directing monitoring - exactly the kind of "eyes on" approach that would work to save our wetlands.


They show which wetlands thrive or decline, confirm restoration progress - or step in early - and move from reactive response to proactive stewardship through:

Smarter Decisions

  • Targeted restoration. Instead of guessing which wetland to restore, cities can use data to prioritize sites where intervention will have the greatest ecological impact.

  • Better upstream management. Data reveals whether contaminated runoff from nearby streets is harming the wetland, enabling cities to address the source - not just treat the symptom.

Stronger Accountability

  • Defensible data. State and provincial governing bodies can prove compliance with clean water regulations or justify investments in green infrastructure with real evidence, not anecdotes.

  • Community engagement. Visible and accessible data translates into stories residents can understand: "This wetland is home to 23 plant species because we are monitoring its health."


The Alternative: await visible failure - dead plants, absent wildlife, foul water 

More than just another Park


Urban wetlands are worth protecting. They aren't just pretty places to walk through and forget about; they're living spaces that we depend on.


Soil sensors don't replace wetland ecologists or conservationists. They give those experts key information to inform best the decisions possible - catching problems early, intervening precisely, and preserving habitat for generations to come.

Further Reading

Find out more about Wetlands and threats posed against them

]]>Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:43:15 +0000<![CDATA[A Smarter Way to Protect Your Green Infrastructure]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/turn-your-roof-into-a-caretaker-not-just-a-coverGreen roofs and living walls are proven risk management strategies - protecting buildings from UV damage, temperature extremes, and flooding. But there’s a catch: a wilted green roof provides zero benefits.]]>

Green roofs aren’t just an aesthetic feature of a building, they’re a risk management strategy.

Green roofs, walls, and other infrastructure offer a lot of benefits, and are a proven risk management strategy: They protect buildings from UV damage, temperature extremes, flooding, and regulatory penalties. 

But that’s only true when the green roof is actually green; a wilted green roof doesn’t enjoy any of those benefits.
If left in an unhealthy state, green roofs can quickly - and silently - fail. 
Over and under watering, lack of nutrition, extreme air temperatures and humidity that can literally choke the life out of the plants, and more… 

This will all turn a living roof into a brown, dusty, and expensive liability.

The Losing Trade-Off

Green asset owners often have to balance a poor tradeoff:

Expensive expert monitoring 
(not always necessary)

versus 

Even more expensive problems 
(cheaper if detected early)

Green Roof Rebuild & Repair Costs

 Green Roof TypeDisposal (per m²)
Rebuild (per m²)Maintenance (per m²)
 Extensive~$15 ~$112 ~$5.03
 Semi-Intensive~$24 ~$147  ~$9
 Intensive~$30~ $409 ~$6.5

Maintenance can be expensive, but extensive rebuilding (which often requires disposal, as well) can cost 16 to 63 times more!  Which would we all rather pay?

(Costs are an estimate based on average values., and individual roof maintenance needs vary. Source)

Green assets like living roofs, walls, and landscapes need close inspection by qualified experts to keep them healthy. Each inspection isn’t hugely expensive, but they need to happen regularly - which can quickly add up.

The problem is that inspection isn’t always necessary; when the asset is fine, you’re paying the expert for no reason.

The alternative is worse: having experts find an expensive problem that could have been avoided if caught earlier.

Costs scale even harder if the problem requires a rebuild (see "Green Roof Rebuild & Repair Costs", inset).

Green Roof Rebuild & Repair Costs

 Green Roof TypeDisposal (per m²)
Rebuild (per m²)Maintenance (per m²)
 Extensive~$15 ~$112 ~$5.03
 Semi-Intensive~$24 ~$147  ~$9
 Intensive~$30~ $409 ~$6.5

Maintenance can be expensive, but extensive rebuilding (which often requires disposal, as well) can cost 16 to 63 times more!  Which would we all rather pay?


(Costs are an estimate based on average values., and individual roof maintenance needs vary. Source)

There’s a lot to watch out for…

    Factors that help keep a green roof healthy:

    • Air temperatures can vary, but if they're too hot for too long, plants can suffocate themselves (consistently high temperatures are also bad for humans)

    • Prolonged high humidity can make plants extremely unhealthy for range of reasons
    • Water availability, of course, plays an enormous role in plant health

    • Wrong levels of light exposure can also cause problems

When Policy Demands Proof

Increasingly, cities of all sizes are adopting green infrastructure mandates, penalties for stormwater mismanagement, and offering tax credits tied to measurable sustainability metrics. 


Without data to prove your roof is functioning - retaining rainfall, supporting vegetation, lowered energy bills - credits disappear and penalties may arise.

Living systems need to be maintained, not forgotten, in order to thrive. Without that visibility, even the best-designed green roof or wall becomes a hidden liability.

The Future of Urban Sustainability Starts on Your Roof

While green roofs are a perfect starting point, the same sensor technology applies to urban gardens, street medians, parks, and any landscaped space where soil health matters. 


Soil monitoring gives city managers, property owners, and landscapers the data foundation for evidence-based resource management - reducing water waste, preventing nutrient runoff, and protecting infrastructure investments.


SoiLiNQ is one way the integration of monitoring technologies and environmental data can help your green roofs thrive by keeping it healthy and in large your building in good shape.



Further Reading
Green Roof Test Bed Performance: The hydrological performance of a green roof test bed under UK climatic conditions - ScienceDirect

Effects of Extended Light/Dark Cycles: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10821415

]]>Tue, 14 Apr 2026 17:49:34 +0000<![CDATA[Fertilizer Runoff Costs Us All]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/too-much-of-a-good-thingOver-fertilization wastes resources and contaminates water supplies. Learn how environmental monitoring, including soil monitoring, helps farmers, landscapers, and city managers reduce fertilizer runoff and lower costs.]]>

Over-Fertilization: The Hidden Cost of Fertilizer Runoff for Farms, Landscapes, and Cities

 Why Over-Fertilizing Happens

Applying fertilizers to get better results seems like a no-brainer.

Farmers, Landscapers, and City Managers alike look to fertilizers to meet aesthetic demands and maximize growth. But over-application creates an invisible problem: The extra fertilizer gets carried into our water supply by rainfall and irrigation.

Effects We Do and Don't See

Fertilizer runoff is hard to detect because it builds slowly, meaning it usually escapes notice until it’s already large, time consuming, and expensive to clean up.


It's also dangerous.

We pay the costs on both sides:
    1. Inefficient fertilizer usage (costs on the way in)

    2. Contamination cleanups (costs on the way out)

Precise Resource Management Matters

The underlying issue is a lack of visibility into whether soil nutrients are at optimal levels or excessive amounts have been applied. Creating that visibility can minimize or remove many of these issues. This is just one benefit of data-driven green management, using environmental sensors to reduce water waste and over-fertilization, making human efforts more effective.


Farmers are starting to use this technology to monitor changes in soil conditions, watering and applying inputs (like water and nutrients) only when necessary.  This results in reduced runoff, healthier crops, and lowered costs.


These same ideas could easily be applied directly to cities and landscapes. By integrating sensor networks into city parks, street landscaping (like medians), and other green infrastructure city managers can gain visibility into what's happening beneath the surface.


Easily available continuous data would transform urban landscaping and green space management from a guessing game into an evidence-based practice. 

It would improve city-wide maintenance practices, and give municipalities a powerful tool to reduce pollution - all without sacrificing the beauty and function of urban green spaces.

From Farms to Cities: A Connected Solution

Ultimately, it won't just be data and visibility that make these issues manageable at scale. We need connected systems that can work closely with human beings to help us manage all of our resources, including our time, better.



Ginkgo is trying to imagine what that world would look like and make it real.


That's the path we've put ourselves on at SoiLiNQ.



See how SoiLiNQ gives you real-time visibility

Book a Demo
]]>Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:36:27 +0000<![CDATA[Urban Heat Islands are a Big Deal]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/urban-heat-islands-are-a-big-dealBeing too hot for too long is bad for us. Urban heat islands make this worse, and cost us more. Urban Green Spaces help, but they can be expensive unless they're managed intelligently. SoiLiNQ is leading the way.]]>

Too hot, for too long?
It's ​worse for your health than you might realize.

Maintaining cooler urban temperatures is essential for protecting the public
from high energy costs, poor air quality, and heat-related illness.

Why Cities Are Getting Hotter

As population density rises, so does the concentration of heat generated by buildings, vehicles, and human activity. 


By 2050, 68% of the global population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050, meaning that more than 2/3rds of the heat we generate will come from concentrated areas - “Urban Heat Islands” (UHI).

The Science: Why Concrete Traps Warmth

Cities are filled with heat absorbing surfaces like concrete, asphalt, steel, and so on. These materials don't reflect light energy (the have low 'albedo'). Instead, they absorb lots of heat energy and hold it, releasing it slowly - and consistently - long after the sun has gone down.

Cool Cities cost less than Hot Cities

One of the most effective ways to combat UHI is through 'green infrastructure.' Soils and plants play a critical role, helping reverse the effects of UHIs by acting as natural air conditioners, and air filters:

  • They capture and filter out harmful air pollution
  • They cool us off by releasing water vapor from the pores in their leaves
  • They absorb solar radiation, and provide shade


Bottom line: We breathe easier, and spend less on air conditioning.


Economic & Health Impacts

The UHI effect isn't just a comfort issue or environmental hurdle - they're a drain on city and provincial budgets. 


UHI's increase cooling demands and energy costs. The unending heat they create directly contributes to respiratory issues and heat-related illnesses among vulnerable populations.

Challenges in Maintaining Urban Green Spaces

Urban Green Spaces are amazingly effective at counteracting UHIs, but they don't come cheap. Green spaces need water, human labour, fertilizer, and more to keep them functioning. These needs often outpace available resources - they wither, die, and must be replaced at even greater expense.

Protecting ROI with Climate Intelligence

Extreme heat doesn't just affect people; it buckles pavement and stresses power grids. 

Maintaining a 'cool' city through well managed green spaces like parks, gardens, and other arboreal spaces extends the lifespan of our roads, homes, and places of work, deferring millions in maintenance costs. 

That's real Return on Investment.

Data-Backed Resilience for Smart Cities

Continuous soil monitoring makes keeping Green Spaces alive and functioning much cheaper and easier.  When municipal managers know where water, fertilizer, and other labour is needed, resources aren't wasted. 


SoiLiNQ is here to help: SoiLiNQ helps managers optimize water usage, reduce manual workload, and ensure that urban greenery remains healthy, even when money is tight. 


That directly translates to cooler, healthier living for us all.


Ultimately, urban green spaces are more than just aesthetic additions - they are essential infrastructure for sustainable cities.  By combining nature-based solutions with smart technologies, cities can better combat rising temperatures, improve public health, and create more resilient communities.  As urban populations continue to grow, investing in the health and maintenance of green spaces will be key to ensuring that cities remain not only functional, but also liveable for future generations.

Sources
https://www.sciencedirect.com/referencework/9780121764807/encyclopedia-of-energy

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.870403/full

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/why-we-need-green-spaces-in-cities.html

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-heat-and-healthhttps://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11390756/

]]>Tue, 31 Mar 2026 17:52:51 +0000<![CDATA[The Soil Compaction Problem]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/soil-compaction-problemLike water on a brick instead of a sponge, compacted soil prevents water from infiltrating soil and helping plants thrive. SoiLiNQ can help.]]>

Why Your Water Bill is High, But Your Plants are Still Thirsty

If you’ve ever seen water from an irrigation system collect in pools or flow into a channel while plants around it look wilted and dry, there’s likely a deeper (and possibly expensive) problem: overly compacted soil.

Soil can act more like a sponge, or more like a brick depending on soil compaction. 

When you pour water over the sponge, it absorbs the liquid instantly, holding it for future use. Soil that holds water nicely is a lot healthier, more profitable to use, and cheaper to maintain.

On the other hand, water poured over a brick just runs off. This creates a harmful cycle: stressed plants wilt and yellow, which looks like drought, so owners give them even more water, leading to further root damage, wasted water, and dry looking plants. 


That cycle hides waste and drives costs: water, fertilizer, maintenance costs all go up - plant quality and yields come down. 

The Root Restriction Problem

Plants tend to need looser soil to grow deep and wide root systems. Plant roots in overly compacted soil are forced to stay shallow - they cannot grow properly, and rely on surface moisture.


These dry out within hours on hot days, requiring more water just to survive, let alone thrive. In contrast, deep-rooted plants access water stored deeper in the soil and can go days without irrigation, driving costs down and improving plant life.

Knowing what to fix is the Hard Part

Overly compacted soil isn’t difficult or expensive to rehabilitate, but discovering the problem can be costly. 

Soil can change its compaction level over time, without your knowledge. Watching it carefully can be time consuming and expensive.

SoiLiNQ is here to help.


Seeing the Invisible with Data

Technologies like SoiLiNQ help remove the guesswork by collecting and analyzing continuous data, revealing what’s happening in the soil.


SoiLiNQ users can see a difference between water delivery and soil penetration - they’re alert to problems like overly compacted soil, important differences in air temperature and soil temperature, humidity variations, and more.

The result is reduced operational costs, and (usually) healthier, better looking plants.

The Bottom Line

Soil compaction doesn’t just make irrigation harder; it makes it more expensive. 

It hides water waste, starves roots of depth and minerals, increases the risk of overwatered or drowned plants.

Soil health is drastically improved by combining physical soil management (like aeration) with the intelligence of soil moisture monitoring.  Stop paying for water flowing off your crops and start irrigating with precision, reducing energy costs, and ensuring that every drop ends up where it needs to be: at the root zone.


Click here to learn about ways to reduce soil compaction: University of Delaware

]]>Mon, 30 Mar 2026 18:47:11 +0000<![CDATA[Trust is a Requirement, Not a Feature]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/trust-is-a-requirementGinkgo, OCI, and Vineland Research are cooperating on Machine Learning R&D for GreenTech. This ML Project will be by Sean Militello at Ginkgo Sustainability, and Rhoda de Jonge, at Vineland Research and Innovation Centre. It will leverage the SoiLiNQ proprietary sensor.]]>

Driving Smarter Plant Health Insights Through Partnership and Innovation

At Ginkgo Sustainability Inc., we believe that better data leads to better decisions - especially when it comes to the health of the living environments we help build and maintain. That’s why we’re thrilled to launch a collaborative project with Vineland Research & Innovation Centre and the Ontario Centre of Innovation, funded in part by OCI’s Critical Industrial Technologies program, to push the boundaries of machine learning to create a classification and prediction systems that we can trust.

This project marries cutting-edge technology with practical horticultural expertise. We’re using SoiLiNQ™, our soil and plant health IoT platform, to gather high-quality environmental data and build machine learning (ML) infrastructure that turns that data into meaningful insights.



What Makes This Collaboration Special

  • Real-world expertise meets advanced technology
    Vineland brings scientific and analytical rigor to carefully guide data collection and ensure it’s accurate and verifiable. The ML pipeline will be built using clean, trustworthy data, and deliver business intelligence customers can rely on.

  • Technology that works for many communities
    Using SoiLiNQ sensors to capture continuous data from a range soil and plant combinations, the project will deliver multiple narrowly scoped, highly effective machine learning models that users can trust, rather than a single model that gets it right some of the time.

  • Building for the future 
    Our goal is not only to analyze data but to create an efficient ML pipeline that scales with user needs, delivering predictive and prescriptive insights that help users act with confidence.

We look forward to sharing progress as the project evolves toward completion this September 2026. Stay tuned for updates, and if you haven’t already, follow SoiLiNQ at www.soilinq.ca to learn how actionable plant health insights can support your work.

]]>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:32:34 +0000<![CDATA[News & Events]]>http://soilinq-test.zohosites.ca/news_and_events/post/news-events

Welcome to our new Website!

As SoiLiNQ Approaches full commercial launch, we'll be posting new and important information and updates here.

Product updates and releases, upcoming research, and more! We'll be adding information and asking important questions.


We're excited to have you with us on our journey. 

"See you... out there!"

]]>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 17:01:38 +0000