Flora as soil moisture sensor

General
1

Given proper calibration, can the Flora be used to measure soil moisture?

I have using the VH400 soil moisture sensors from vegetronix - they have worked pretty well for me http://www.vegetronix.com/Products/VH400/

The VH400 description reads:
“Because our probe measures the dielectric constant of the soil using transmission line techniques, it is insensitive to water salinity, and will not corrode over time as does conductivity based probes.”

The flora has exposed copper unlike the VH400. Would it corrode over time and would it be sensitive to water salinity?

If yes: What would proposed redesign be - how do you think the VH400 is designed?

2

Flora’s copper is not exposed, it’s under solder resist. It’s not mid-plane like the vegetronix ones though.

I’ve no idea how the vegetronix ones work, I suspect it’s like flora (capacitive sensing). As to whether this is sensitive to salinity, I doubt it - it’s not looking at conductivity like the exposed metal ones.