The main goal of TERENO was to create observation platforms on the basis of an interdisciplinary and long‐term aimed research program. By the aid of SoilCan‐lysimeters, an ideal network was built between the four different TERENO‐observatories with their highly instrumented test sites. Within the four TERENO‐observatories at 13 different experimental sites, in total 126 lysimeters were filled monolithically and the measurements were started in October 2010. The lysimeters have been cultivated as grassland or arable land with a standardized crop rotation: winter wheat – winter barley – winter rye – oat.