AquaCrop (open source)
software-tool
The open Python implementation of FAO's crop-water productivity model.
Model yield against water before you commit either.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
FarmBot
hardware
The open-source CNC garden robot that seeds, waters, and weeds raised beds; hardware plans and software all free, used by five hundred schools.
A garden that tends itself, or the best robotics teaching platform agriculture has.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
GOAT (Gathering for Open Agricultural Technology)
community
The commons of open agricultural technology: a forum where the farmOS, OpenTEAM, and farm-hacker worlds meet, and a biennial gathering (next: December 2026, Seabrook Island, South Carolina).
The watering hole. If you build open tools for farms, these are your people.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 13, 2026
NeverDry
software-tool
A new scientific water-balance irrigation integration for Home Assistant, releasing weekly since spring 2026.
The newest thinking in water-balance irrigation, free and moving fast.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Smart Irrigation for Home Assistant
software-tool
Evapotranspiration-based watering duration for Home Assistant: it does the FAO-56 math against real weather so you water what the plants actually used.
Irrigation that follows the weather instead of the calendar, free, in the platform you already run.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Climate Smart Farming (Cornell)
software-tool
Cornell's suite of climate decision tools for Northeast farms: growing degree days, water deficit, freeze risk.
Run the water deficit calculator and know when to irrigate.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
CropManage
software-tool
A free web tool from UC Cooperative Extension that tells you when to irrigate and for how long, and how much nitrogen to put on, field by field. It works from CIMIS weather, your soil and the crop's stage. It covers vegetables, berries, tree nuts and field crops, and it also keeps your records. You need a free account, and it leans on California weather stations.
Field-specific irrigation schedules and nitrogen rates you can act on, plus records that help with California water-quality reporting.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
OpenET
data-api
Satellite-measured evapotranspiration at field scale across forty-eight states, with the FARMS tool for individual farmers and a REST API.
See how much water your fields actually consumed, monthly, free. This was thousands of dollars a field a decade ago.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
BeardedTinker
publication-media
The one established maker channel running a sustained Home Assistant automate-my-land arc in 2026: vineyard, rain tanks, watering.
Watch HA meet actual land, weekly.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Bruce Bugbee / Apogee Instruments channel
publication-media
Measurement science for growers: PAR, soil moisture, and Bugbee's lighting lectures, rigorous and active.
University-grade instruction on measuring light and water, free from an instrument maker.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Smart Home Junkie
publication-media
Current, competent Home Assistant tutorials whose 2026 garden-watering guide took the top search slot in weeks.
The freshest HA irrigation walkthroughs going.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
UF/IFAS Greenhouse Training Online
university-program
Fifteen four-week online courses for commercial greenhouse and nursery growers, from Greenhouse 101 through nutrient management, irrigation, substrates, disease, growth regulators, weeds, climate, and water treatment. Also carries courses contributed by Ohio State, Texas A&M, and the Floriculture Alliance.
A structured greenhouse curriculum you can take one course at a time, each around $293, with certificates that count.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
CleanWateR3 greenhouse water resources
university-program
The university alliance on greenhouse and nursery irrigation water: quality, treatment, recycling, and runoff.
Diagnose water-quality trouble in recirculating systems before it wrecks a crop.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Pesticide Properties DataBase
dataset
Free academic data on eighteen hundred active ingredients: environmental fate, bee toxicity, leaching potential. The numbers behind the label warnings. European regulatory fields differ from US status.
Compare two actives on bee toxicity or groundwater risk before choosing. Virtually unknown outside academia.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Monnit
distributor-manufacturer
The Salt Lake wireless sensor manufacturer: affordable temperature, humidity, and water sensors with cloud alerting.
Commercial-grade sensors for barns and coolers when DIY is not the mood.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Rain-Flo Irrigation
distributor-manufacturer
The Lancaster County manufacturer and dealer: drip supplies plus the vegetable plasticulture iron, mulch layers and water-wheel transplanters, at Plain-community prices.
The plasticulture standard for market growers, built where practicality is a virtue.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Auburn fisheries and aquaculture
university-program
ALAuburn's School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, the premier warm-water aquaculture program, with a 1,600-acre pond research station.
Extension programs and research from the school that trained much of the world's aquaculture industry.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Kentucky greenhouse and controlled environment horticulture
university-program
KYThe University of Kentucky's greenhouse and controlled-environment extension program.
Free grower resources organized by energy, growth, and water management.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Southern Regional Aquaculture Center
university-program
MSThe USDA regional center whose fact sheets are the standard free reference for warm-water aquaculture.
The SRAC fact sheet library: pond construction, species culture, water quality, one sheet per question.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026
Thad Cochran National Warmwater Aquaculture Center
university-program
MSThe Mississippi State-anchored national center at Stoneville: the research, extension, and diagnostic base of the US catfish industry.
Diagnostic services and the applied research behind commercial pond production.
Visit ↗Verified Oct 14, 2026