So you're saying you bury them up to the upper end of the green part of the sensor, past the dark part of the probe? Am I getting that right?
We have Bermuda grass (less water/better in hot weather) and it tends to have deeper roots than Fescue, AFAIK.
I don't have mine in the lawn, but was just saying I would want to make sure you get the black part completely in the soil, not so much the green part needed to be below ground.
And I guess with the depth, these could at least give you an indication of the moisture content, even if they don't go down to the base of the roots
Yeah...I did just a little searching and didn't find anything that went really deep.
I did see below, which was a little scary. 
Six feet!?! Like a monster movie... sounds like if can get the sensor down into the lawn a little that will be close.
Bermudagrass roots can grow to a depth of six feet or more depending on soil profile characteristics. However, the majority of the root system, 80% or more, is found in the top 6 inches of soil.
I'm going to put two sensors in the lawn, one at a shadier area, one where there's more sun.
EDIT: Turns out bad idea...accidentally mowed over one of the sensors and decapitated it. So I removed the other, and am doing w/out lawn moisture sensors in the lawn for now.
This is the one I was thinking about.
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07FMKKBX5
Looks like it's not available in the US though... Might be able to buy it direct, are any of those frequencies compatabke in the US?
Bermuda what I have, but the roots are no where near six feet much less six inches. Maybe 3 at most.
Not sure how much you need a display (mine are tucked away in corners and nobody every really checks them). If you can do without one you could save some money with their GW1101.
Searching for anything Ecowitt off of Amazon.com.au really did not find me any decent results... so not sure what is going on there.
Ecowitt allows you to buy just about every single piece separately (including the displays) if you want. The bundles do provide a bit of savings but not a ton.
I'm not in Australia, that's just the link I got of their website. I'm in the US, and they don't have much there either.
I do use the display quite a bit on my current WX station. How does the GW connect to the wifi and your hub?
Ecowitt's app (WS View) can add the Ecowitt Gateway in pretty easily and it adds it to the WiFi during that process (like most home WiFi devices now).
From there I use my drivers (there are a couple choices so I will just link to the community drivers page). Not sure why mine do not get more hits through here since they are fairly popular but whatever. 
There are instructions in my driver (I think the other ones also) but it basically involves setting the Ecowitt to send the data to a custom location (your Hubitat's IP) with a specific port # so the Hubitat recognizes it. Then creating a virtual device on the Hubitat with your Ecowitt's MAC address the DNI (lowecase, no : or spaces in it, for example AB:CD:EF:01:23:45 would become abcdef012345 as the DNI). From then on if the Hubitat gets anything from that MAC on the port it will send it to that device's driver to handle.
Well I think I am going to eventually go with the Ecowitt weather station. In the meantime, I picked up that gateway and a moisture sensor to start with, I have a few ideas about what I can do with their stuff.
I give up on sensors in the lawn. I have a few still there I couldn't find before winter. And the batteries go dead by the next year. And they didn't seem to really help the watering schedule anyway. I just turn up the watering minutes myself as the summer gets hotter.
Yeah. I don't think I'll go so far as the lawn. Initially probably a few house and potted porch plants. It sounds like an interesting idea, but I think it's going to be much more hassle than it is really worth.
But I do think I'm gong to go for the weather station eventually.
Starting small with any new tech or platform is always my suggestion, so can understand and agree with taking small steps.
Also, I think lawns will typically "tell you" well before they are in real trouble, they are often particularly resilient as long as you keep an eye on them, and will display signs of distress early enough to respond.
You know...if one had the "perfect soil moisture sensor" package (Ag & Research ones come a lot higher price range than what we are seeing in these Ecowitt modules) set in the "most representative soil location" then MAYBE they would drive the irrigation optimization the way folk hope...but other than a confined soil package like a pot or a small bed...it is hard to accurately represent the whole of a large lawn (with varying tree canopy), garden, or field. Sensor accuracy aside...everything just doesn't take up/use/retain water the same.
I have come to believe experience learning the vegetation and soil water requirements (given a particular vegetation, soil, time of year, sun, temperature, humidity, and rain) is more beneficial than dependence on these moisture sensors.
That experience results in setting a few "in-the-ballpark" watering schedules appropriate for Spring, Summer, and Fall.
The one thing I WOULD like to accurately measure is rainfall (and approximate persistence in the soil based on subsequent drying)...that is the one thing that would most impact if the watering schedule should be paused/skipped for a couple days or not.
I started that project with a hacked ZigBee contact sensor wired to this sensor package
https://www.allelectronics.com/item/rws-1/rain-sensor/moisture-monitor-w/relay/1.html
and I got waylaid on figuring out how to box/tray, angle, and expose the sensor plate to retain some water (i.e. sponge), and drain excess. Turns out that's the more complicated part to get right 
I've been using the Rachio interfaced with the Weatherflow Tempest and it's been doing a nice job. The Rachio allows you to configure the soil type, plant type, grass type, shaded or unshaded and level or sloped terrain for each zone. That along with the data from the Tempest, rainfall current, past and forecast, wind speed, temp and humidity gives me a pretty good schedule. Having been in the Lawn & Ornamental pest control business for 30 years I do watch for proper irrigation very close.
wittboy
Now on Amz:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09QKXMKS4
And a reviewer says they've connected it to HE
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R19G80MFPPTKWI?ASIN=B09QKXMKS4
To clarify, does the Wittboy uses the existing Ecowitt-HE app or require @kahn-hubitat 's custom device drivers?
It should work fine with any of the Ecowitt drivers (including my Ambient/Ecowitt driver)... because it says it can go to custom sites using the "Ecowitt protocol".
No it needs my custom driver for now as i believe changes have not been integrated yet. It has nothing to do with the app config. That comment is misleading.
Download the Hubitat app
