3 growing seasons · 8 crops · 2 New Jersey sites

Stop guessing.
Start growing.

An irrigation controller that reads your soil and waters only when it's actually dry — not on a Sunday schedule. Plus fertigation that doses on a closed loop with live EC and pH feedback. Built by a grower who got tired of guessing.

Reserve a Wave 1 slot See the field data →
Alpha site · Long Branch, NJ · May 2023
Alpha field data · 3 growing seasons

What three years of soil‑driven scheduling actually looks like.

Two NJ sites. Six zones each. Eight crops. A predecessor controller running soil-moisture-only logic. Production HydroIQ adds weather, learning per-zone scheduling, and EC-driven fertigation. These are the actual baskets.

Mixed September harvest, Year 3 — two watermelons, heirloom tomatoes, sweet peppers, NJ alpha site
September · Year 3Watermelons, heirloom tomatoes, sweet peppers — three seasons of scheduling refinement converging on a single basket.
Single heirloom eggplant, Year 0 alpha site
Eggplant · Year 0Heirloom variety, single-fruit close-up.
August Year 1 harvest basket — zucchini, tomatoes, peppers
August · Year 1Mid-summer basket: zucchini, tomatoes, peppers.
September Year 1 harvest basket — heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, apples
September · Year 1Heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, apples — late-season pickings.
November Year 2 — late-season tomatoes after a late frost event, NJ alpha site
November · Year 2Late frost edge case. Scheduling logic adapted; tomatoes kept ripening into mid‑November.
October Year 0 — tomato harvest with watermelon, end of first alpha season
October · Year 0End of the first alpha season — tomatoes (mixed ripening) and watermelon. The data started here.
∼20%
water reduction vs. prior-year timer baseline
12–34%
fruiting-yield improvement across 8 crops
3 seasons
of continuous-runtime field data · 2 sites · 12 zones
What HydroIQ actually does

A controller, a soil probe, and a closed loop. Plain and simple.

No marketing-speak. Here's the actual sequence the box runs, every day, on every zone.

Reads your soil

Volumetric water content, EC, and temperature — at multiple depths per zone — sampled every 15 minutes via industrial RS485 probes.

Waters when it's actually dry

Compares the live read to your crop's water need at this growth stage (FAO‑56 Penman‑Monteith with crop‑specific Kc). No Sunday‑at‑6am schedules. Manual override available any time.

Doses nutrients on a closed loop

Optional Bloom fertigation channel meters cartridge nutrients while measuring EC and pH before and after each dose. The dose self‑adjusts. No mixing buckets, no monthly tank chemistry.

Flags trouble before you see it

Optional outdoor camera takes one still per hour. Pattern recognition flags leaf curl, pest damage, growth lag. Stills only — no video stored, ever.

The math is FAO-56 Penman-Monteith for evapotranspiration, AWC‑based depletion accounting for irrigation triggering, and PID with integral-term compensation for fertigation dosing. The methodology is public; the implementation is ours.

Hardware

Built to survive a season outside. Then another.

One controller, three configurations. Industrial drip-irrigation valves, IP67-rated outdoor enclosures, surge protection on every port, 12V DC input. Designed to outlast the crops it waters.

HydroIQ alpha controller installed in a New Jersey garden, Year 2-3, mounted to a chain-link fence with live temperature, humidity, and per-zone moisture readings displayed on the OLED

Hydro Controller

Base $349 · Pro $599 · Enterprise $1,999

The brain. Eight native zones, expandable to 64 via accessories. 9V DC latching solenoid output (standard for battery- and solar-driven drip systems), 12V DC input.

  • Wi‑Fi connectivity for cloud features. Schedules and dosing run locally without internet — the box doesn't need a signal to water your beds.
  • Earth-free surge protection on every external port — no ground rod needed at the customer site.
  • Three configurations: Base (residential), Pro (residential + fertigation channel bundled), Enterprise (commercial fleet + multi-site).
  • Photo: actual alpha unit at the NJ Site 1 fence, Year 2–3, with live readouts on the integrated OLED.
Production hardware photo coming with Wave 1.
Final unit in late-stage development.

Hydro Node

Production pricing announced at Wave 1 launch

The wireless arm. Solar+battery field unit for beds that sit far from the Controller. Drives up to 4 latching valves and reads up to 4 soil sensors per node, talking sub‑GHz LoRa back to the Controller.

  • 3,000 mAh LiFePO4 battery; months of operation on a single charge.
  • Range: 1–3 km line-of-sight depending on terrain. Mesh-capable.
  • For multi-bed properties, vineyards, estates, and small farms.
Camera, weather station,
and fertigation module
visuals coming with Wave 1.

Accessories

Modular — bundle to your beds

Modular add-ons that plug into any Controller. Mix and match by what your beds actually need.

  • Camera — outdoor-rated, daily stills, plant-health pattern recognition.
  • WX weather station — on-site rain, temperature, wind, solar radiation. Feeds the ET model.
  • Fertigation module — 2–4 dosing channels, EC/pH sense, peristaltic dosing pumps. Required for Bloom subscribers.
  • Sensor 2-pack, flow meter, zone expansion kit, solar battery kit.
  • Accessory pricing finalized at launch — available bundled with the Controller or added later from the Wave 1 store.

What you'll see in the app.

Production app in development · Beta release alongside Wave 1 hardware (2026)
Zones
8 of 8 online
Z1
62%
Z2
78%
Z3
45%
Z4
71%
Today's plan
Auto
06:30
Z1 Tomatoes
8 min
07:15
Z2 Peppers
5 min
18:00
Z3 Beds N
12 min
Skipped: Z5, Z6, Z8 — soil still moist after Mon rain.
Bloom dosing
2.1 EC / 6.4 pH
N-P-K
72%
CalMag
45%
Micros
88%
Last dose: 14:12 · ΔEC +0.4 (target met)
Sketch only — production app currently in development.
Compatibility

Will it work in your setup?

The short answer is usually yes — HydroIQ was designed around standard drip-irrigation hardware, not against it. Specifics by category below.

Valves

9V DC latching solenoids — the standard for battery- and solar-driven drip (Hunter DV, Rain Bird DV/PGV-DV, Toro EZ-Flo, Galcon DC, K-Rain BL/UL). If you have 24VAC valves, a low-cost swap-in kit replaces the solenoid coil — same valve body, new coil. Standard 1/2″ and 3/4″ drip valve bodies are supported.

Soil sensors

Industry-standard RS485 Modbus probes (VWC + EC + temperature). Our 6-band sensor pack ships with Pro and Enterprise. You can also bring your own probes — the RS485 bus is open. Bluetooth/Wi-Fi-only probes are not supported (latency and battery problems in practice).

Connectivity

Wi-Fi out of the box. Cloud is optional — the Controller runs schedules and fertigation locally without internet. Cloud features (AI-assisted scheduling, remote access, camera analysis) require a Grove or Canopy subscription. Off-grid beds beyond Wi-Fi range are reached via the Hydro Node accessory over sub-GHz LoRa — the Node carries the bed-level data back to the Controller in your house or shed.

Power

12V DC input (off any standard 12V wall adapter). Node accessories run on solar+LiFePO4 battery for off-grid beds — months between charges in typical Northeast conditions.

Crops

1,000+ pre-loaded crop profiles with FAO-56 Kc coefficients across vegetative, flowering, fruiting, and harvest stages. Vegetables, berries, tree fruit, vineyards, herbs, ornamentals. Custom profiles via the app for anything we missed. We're not the agronomy moat — see the section below.

Climate

Validated in Northeast US humid-temperate conditions (NJ alpha sites, three seasons). FCC and UL certification scheduled for 2026; CE/UKCA in Year 2 for EU expansion. Cold-tolerance and dust ratings for Western/Southwest US in the test plan.

The agronomy

We didn't invent crop science. We applied it.

There's an entire 70-year corpus of agronomic research sitting in FAO bulletins, university extension archives, and USDA databases. The math that says this tomato in this soil in mid-July needs this much water at this depth has been worked out by people far more credentialed than us.

HydroIQ is the box that finally implements it cheaply, on your fence, for your beds. We use FAO-56 Penman-Monteith for evapotranspiration. Kc coefficients from the published crop-coefficient tables. AOAC-equivalent NPK chemistry for Bloom cartridge formulations. OpenET for regional priors. USDA NRCS soil maps for the install defaults.

What we don't do: we don't pretend "smart NPK sensors" work — in-soil probes measure bulk EC and dielectric, not specific nutrient species. For real NPK you need a lab test or a wet titration, which is what Bloom subscribers get (3 included per year). The marketing might be greener if we faked it. The science is clearer if we don't.

What we lean on

  • FAO Irrigation & Drainage Paper 56Penman-Monteith reference evapotranspiration; the Kc/Kcb crop coefficient method we run.
  • USDA NRCS soil surveyDefault field capacity and wilting point per soil texture, used for available-water-content estimation.
  • OpenETRegional 30m-resolution ET data; useful as a sanity check on the local soil-driven schedule.
  • Cooperative Extension ServicesState-level crop-specific recommendations (Rutgers NJAES, Penn State Extension, NCSU Extension, UCANR, etc.). We don't compete with these — we cite them.
  • AOAC Official Methods of AnalysisSource for nutrient titration standards we follow in Bloom's quarterly soil tests.
For installers + distributors

Built for the people
who install it.

HydroIQ ships through the same drip-irrigation channel you already work with. We're not asking you to learn a new ecosystem — we built the Controller around the valves, sensors, and install practices the trade already uses.

1
Wholesale margin15–25% on hardware SKUs depending on volume tier. Cartridges and subscriptions carry installer revenue share.
2
Installer trainingField-tech certification program launching alongside Wave 1. Two-day in-person curriculum plus on-demand video; certified installers listed in the customer directory.
3
Dealer kitDemo Controller, three valve adapter kits, soil-probe sample set, customer-facing collateral, and a co-marketing program for early dealer partners. Available pre-Wave 1 for qualified accounts.
4
Honest commercialsStandard NET-30 terms after the first PO. Warranty replacement ships from US inventory. No private-label gymnastics, no co-op marketing requirements, no exclusivity demands.

Request the dealer pack

For irrigation supply distributors, landscape contractor associations, and regional installer networks. Wholesale price list, margin sheet, installer training schedule, and a sample of the field-validated alpha data.

Email partners@hydroiq.us

Response within 2 business days from Hardy Shostak, Co-Founder & CCO.

Pricing

Plain prices. Hardware is yours forever.

No annual hardware re-purchase, no firmware paywalls, no surprise tiers. The cloud is optional and cancellable; cancelling never bricks what you bought.

Hydro Controller

Base ($349), Pro ($599 with bundled fertigation channel), Enterprise ($1,999 with 16-zone native + multi-site). One-time purchase. 2-year warranty.

$349–1,999one-time

Grove (cloud)

Cloud scheduling, AI-driven per-zone learning, remote access, camera AI flags, weather data integration. Annual rate shown. Month-to-month is 3× (designed to discourage season-only sign-ups). Cancel anytime — Controller keeps running on local schedules.

$19.95per month, annual

Canopy (multi-site)

For landscape contractors and multi-site operators. Everything in Grove plus fleet dashboard, per-property reporting, API access, and dedicated account support.

$99.95per month, per site

Bloom (fertigation auto-refill)

Cartridge nutrients delivered as needed; 3 lab soil tests per year included; closed-loop dosing with live EC/pH feedback. Cartridges are yours — cancelling doesn't claw back what we've shipped.

$29.95per month + cartridges
Your year-one cost
Adjust below — we'll show your full first-year out-of-pocket.
Controller
Plan
Bloom (fertigation)
Zones to convert (9V latching kit)
8
Hardware$349
Valve coil swap kit (8×$14)$112
Subscription · 12 mo$239.40
Year-one total$700
− est. water savings−$528
Net first-year cost$172
How we compute these: Water savings = ~22% of estimated zone water spend (zone × 25 gal/day × 12 mo × 22%, conservative — based on 3 seasons of alpha field data). Fertilizer savings (Bloom only) = ~$15/mo per active fertigation channel, from precision dosing replacing retail liquid fertilizer + reducing over-feeding waste. Production results will be measured and reported quarterly starting beta launch.
FAQ

Questions, answered.

Does HydroIQ work with my existing valves and sensors?
Usually yes. Our controllers drive 9V DC latching solenoid valves — the standard for battery- and solar-powered drip systems (Hunter DV, Rain Bird DV/PGV-DV, Toro EZ-Flo, Galcon, K-Rain BL/UL series). If your existing valves are 24VAC, we offer a swap-in latching solenoid kit ($14/zone) — same valve body, new coil. We support industry-standard RS485 Modbus soil sensors as well as our own. The compatibility checker (linked in the footer) walks you through your specific setup.
What happens if I cancel my subscription?
Your hardware keeps working. Local schedules continue, manual control works, fertigation runs on the last-known dose. Only cloud-dependent features (AI scheduling, remote access, camera analysis) deactivate. The Controller never bricks. Bloom cartridges already shipped to you remain yours; we don't claw them back.
How accurate is the AI?
Our alpha system — running soil-moisture-only logic, no AI — averaged ~20% water reduction and 12–34% fruiting-yield improvement across two NJ sites and three seasons. Production HydroIQ adds AI-driven per-zone learning that improves on those numbers over time. Every recommendation shows its reasoning so you can override. We'll publish per-site benchmarks from the beta cohort starting 2026.
Why is month-to-month so much more than annual?
Annual is the real price. Month-to-month is 3× to discourage seasonal sign-up-and-cancel — it would otherwise be unprofitable for us to support growers who churn after one growing season. Annual locks the lower rate; cancelling at the end of an annual term is fine.
How does the camera handle privacy?
No video is ever stored. The camera takes one still per hour for plant-health analysis, then discards it after processing. Live view is on-demand only and capped at 30 minutes. The camera physically faces your beds — not your house, not your neighbors. You can disable it at any time without affecting the Controller.
Can I deploy this commercially?
Yes. The Enterprise Controller, long-range LoRa node mesh, API access, and Canopy multi-site portal are built for fleet deployment from the ground up. Designed to support 200+ zones per Controller cluster. Beta partnerships with HOAs, landscape contractors, and small-farm operators open in 2026.
Where are you in the launch timeline?
Production hardware is in late-stage development. Manufacturing partner selection in progress. FCC and UL certification scheduled for 2026. Wave 1 ships to early-access list members in 2026 — the first 100 get priority shipping slots and a $50 discount. Beta cohort (multi-site landscape contractors and small farms) opens alongside Wave 1.
Wave 1 · early access

Get on the list.
First 100 get priority.

Wave 1 ships in 2026. The first 100 subscribers get priority shipping slots and $50 off their first HydroIQ Controller. We'll send build updates, alpha-data field write-ups, and beta-program invites along the way.

hello@hydroiq.us · partners@hydroiq.us (dealer pack)