PERANCANGAN SISTEM KONTROL IRIGASI TETES PADA TANAMAN CABAI MENGGUNAKAN ESP32 BERBASIS INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)

Irrigation and fertilization efficiency remain key challenges in chili cultivation. This study designed a drip irrigation and liquid fertilization system based on ESP32 and Internet of Things (IoT), automatically controlled according to soil moisture levels. The system comprises a soil moisture sensor, ultrasonic sensor, RTC, and solenoid valve, with monitoring via an Android application. The methodology includes electronic circuit design, ESP32 programming, and IoT interface integration. Field testing was conducted on chili plants with varying soil moisture and fertilizer volumes. The system performs automatic watering when soil moisture falls below 60%, which serves as the threshold for plant water needs. The soil moisture sensor demonstrated high accuracy, ranging from 93.3% to 95.4%, with an error rate below 10%. Fertilization is scheduled weekly, delivering 100 ml of liquid fertilizer per plant over approximately 55 seconds. Volume distribution showed a variation of ±10 ml between plants. The ultrasonic sensor effectively detects low water levels in the reservoir when the height drops below 10 cm, triggering automatic refilling to the maximum level. Data is transmitted to Firebase for real-time monitoring. The results indicate that plants utilizing the automated system experienced significantly improved growth compared to those under manual methods, which showed signs of declining plant health.