**4. Conclusions**

The rapid incorporation of smartphones into the daily lives of individuals has opened new avenues for data delivery. A 2015 survey indicated that 69% of farmers owned smartphones, and this number was expected to increase to 87% by 2016 [35]. As access to smartphone technology increases, dispersal of precise irrigation scheduling methods may also increase. Using real-time weather data to schedule irrigation is not a new concept; however, previously, it would have involved directly downloading data from a weather station or, more recently, accessing data from the Internet-based site and entering it into a fairly complicated equation to develop irrigation recommendations. This process was generally too time-consuming for growers who may be managing dozens if not hundreds of irrigation zones. By linking to nearby weather stations and generating automated recommendations that are sent directly to a smartphone in the field, these new SmartIrrigation™ applications bypass the cumbersome data transfer and calculations previously required for scheduling irrigation. Our data suggest that the VegApp is more efficient in terms of water use than a well-managed irrigation program developed from historic Eto data and, in most cases, just as efficient as a relatively complicated SMS-based system, while maintaining similar yields. In addition, our data suggest that some of the assumptions incorporated into the VegApp (e.g., rainfall not accounted for when using raised beds covered with plastic mulch) are indeed appropriate. Because these trials were conducted on a loamy sand soil, we could not confirm how soil type would affect the efficiency of the VegApp. Nonetheless, our findings suggest that the SmartIrrigation™ applications represent an easily accessible tool that growers and managers can use to produce vegetables by an efficient irrigation management system.
