Search
Close this search box.

Category: Drip Irrigation News

Standage Farms, Vale, OR – Drip Irrigation on Onions

Standage Farms - Drip Irrigation on OnionsLarry Standage has reaped all the typical benefits of converting to drip irrigation with his onions in Vale, Oregon, including increased yields, reduced runoff, and less use of water, fertilizer, and labor. But the most important benefit is that Standage builds customer loyalty as a result of a higher quality, more uniform crop.

“Each 50 pound bag of onions is superior becuse the crop is more uniform in size, shape, and color, thus the customer is more pleased. I use drip to keep my customers coming back,” says Larry.

Read More »

Drip Irrigation Supplies & System Components

Drip irrigation systems consist of emission devices serviced by a water distribution network that includes control zone equipment.  At the water source, water is controlled with automatic valves, sometimes amended with nutrients or chemicals, filtered and regulated at levels suitable for the emission devices chosen and plants being grown.  From there, water is delivered to each of the emission devices through a network of PVC and PE pipes.  The emission device, whether it is drip tape, a drip emitter, jet or micro-sprinkler, then delivers water and nutrients to the soil where plant roots may nourish the plant.  All components have attributes that affect performance, and that are traded off with initial, installation, operation and maintenance costs or cheap cialis.  A thorough understanding for drip irrigation supplies and components will assist in selecting the proper equipment to achieve desired expectations for the given application.  Drip irrigation systems are durable and are

Read More »

WEBINAR: The Importance of Irrigation Scheduling to Manage Water & Nutrients in the Root Zone

On Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 1PM (Pacific Time), the Grange Network will be hosting a 60-minute, free webinar to discuss the importance of irrigation scheduling. Click here to register for the FREE webinar, “The Importance of Irrigation Scheduling to Manage Water & Nutrients in the Root Zone” Water and nitrogen are the two most important components needed by plants to efficiently and economically achieve plant growth.  Unfortunately, if both are not applied adequately in time and space, significant amounts of water and nitrate can be lost below the root zone, unavailable for plant growth.  When precise irrigation scheduling is practiced, drip irrigation and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) can maximize distribution uniformity of water and nutrients, and maximize crop economic yields, quality, and sustainability. In this webinar, you will learn: What is irrigation scheduling Factors affecting irrigation scheduling Irrigation scheduling process and methods Recent instrumentation developments for irrigation scheduling via the Internet Date:  Thursday, March

Read More »

Good Water Management: A Wise Business Decision

Increasing water costs and water scarcity are becoming critical issues that are affecting the bottom lines for growers’ businesses. Whether these issues are the result of droughts, environmental concerns, or water regulations, the fact is that growers need to improve their water management techniques.

In a recent online article in Growing Produce, Michael Cahn highlights how growers in California are utilizing drip irrigation to improve their water management and crop quality. In one paragraph, Cahn writes, “In the Central Valley where surface water allocations can be limited during drought years, drip has allowed growers to farm more acres with less water. Besides saving water, drip provides more management options for growers. Under drip, tractor operations are less likely to be hampered by saturated furrows and application uniformity under drip is not affected by wind, which is common in the afternoon along the coast. Additionally, drip can reduce foliar disease pressure in crops by keeping leaves dry.”

Read More »

Reiter Berry Farms, Watsonville and UCCE, Monterey County, CA

Row crop growers were among the first farmers to adopt drip irrigation as a production tool rather than to save water. Initially, drip was viewed as a superior way to manipulate plant growth and quality by precisely managing water and fertilizer after germination or plant set. Sprinklers are commonly used to germinate vegetable seed or set vegetable transplants, and in some cases, are still used today to irrigate throughout the crop cycle. But with water, labor, energy, fumigation, organic, and food safety issues becoming more important each day, growers are finding that drip provides real solutions, and may be used for much more than just irrigation after plant establishment.

“With drip, I’m not applying water in-between the beds, so weed growth is greatly reduced. With sprinklers, weeds germinate everywhere and I am forced to hand weed, which is expensive,” says Frank Estrada, Area Manager for Reiter Berry Farms in Watsonville, California. “We stopped using sprinklers over three years ago for anything except pre-irrigation prior to bed prep.”

Read More »

Cox Valley View Farms, Long Island, KS – Drip Farm Irrigation Systems on Corn and Soybeans

Even before the perfect storm of diminished water supplies, rising corn prices and government cost-share funding hit the plains, Steven Cox knew his irrigated farms would have to change. That’s why he installed his first subsurface drip irrigation system over nine years ago on his 4,000 acre operation, and has installed an additional 120 acres of drip irrigation since.

The conversion has allowed him to stretch limited water supplies while increasing yields and gain quality at the same time. “Before drip, we were trying to flood irrigate 60 acres with a 250 GPM well. We were lucky to get top yields on 25 percent of the field. I now get top yields on 100 percent of the field because of the increased uniformity and efficiency I get with drip.”

Read More »

Drip Irrigation on Processing Tomatoes – Worth Farms, Huron, CA

Chuck Herrin manages Worth Farms in California’s Westlands Water District. Founded by his grandfather, a custom harvester turned farmer, Worth Farms today grows 4,500 acres of drip irrigated crops including 3,500 acres of processing tomatoes.

“Our best-ever yield on conventional sprinkler/gravity acreage was 64 tons/acre in 2004. five years later, we are achieving 50-100% increases in yields with drip, and an overall average of 65 tons/acre operation wide. On top of that, water, labor, fertilizer, and herbicide savings are substantial. We used to apply 36 inches of water per acre to meet a crop ET of about 18 inches. Now, we only apply 24 inches of water, a 33% savings. At the same time, we have cut labor use by half, and fertilizer use by a third. This is significant.”

Read More »

Craig Andrus Farms, Salinas, CA – Drip Irrigation on Lettuce

Craig Andrus is no stranger to sprinklers, but has been using drip on his 400 acres of romaine lettuce, Southeast of Salinas for over four years, now. He used to have a linear, but when it came time to replace it, he noticed the trend towards drip and made the change.

“My yields are higher, the crop is more uniform, and the quality is better because of perfect growing conditions.”

Read More »

The Advantages of Closely Spaced Emitters

Choosing the right drip tape emitter spacing can be more of an art than a science. This is because of the many variables that exist in each farming application, including tape placement, soil type, crop, plant population, soil and water salinity, tape quality and cost, etc. Fortunately, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s recent Drip and Micro Irrigation Design and Management Manual, published by the Irrigation Training and Research Center (ITRC) in 2007, provides a great deal of guidance for this important decision. In particular, the new manual discusses how closely spaced drip tape emitters can enhance salt management for seed germination, leach salts in permanent crops, and dilute soil salinity for salt sensitive crops. In addition, the manual highlights some of the agronomic and economic disadvantages of using widely spaced emitters.

Read More »

Typical Drip Irrigation System Layout

The “Typical Drip Irrigation Layout” illustration has been developed to help those who are unfamiliar with drip irrigation understand basic drip irrigation system components and concepts. The drip irrigation layout illustration is organized into two halves. First, the “headworks” portion of a drip irrigation system shows the typical water sources, pumps, filters, chemical injection equipment and controls used in a drip irrigation system. Second, the “field” portion of the drip irrigation system shows typical layouts for five different types of drip irrigation: field crop subsurface drip irrigation (SDI), short term vegetable crop, longer term vegetable crop, vineyard and orchard. Although every application and design will be different than this illustration, it provides a starting point for discussion with viewers unfamiliar with drip irrigation. Watch the animated drip system to see the multiple steps of the drip irrigation process. [swf src=”https://driptips.toro.com/wp-content/uploads/toro_micro.swf” width=680 height=500] For more information about a typical drip irrigation

Read More »

Contact Information

Latest News

Scroll to Top