Bright Ideas

September 1, 2004

As nursery professionals in the drought-full West keep their eyes to the sky, hoping for rain, some innovative irrigation techniques are proving an efficient way to keep things all wet.

Children running through a sprinkler on a hot summer day likely don't think about what a precious commodity water is. They know it's fun. For nursery professionals and their plants, however, it's a lifeline. Those who make their living in the green industry know all too well that Mother Nature is fickle. And those in the West - where drought seems to have hte region in a stranglehold - can't count on rain at all. Water restrictions are constantly issued, and finding innovative ways to keep a client's landscape watered, not to mention the plants at the nursery, has become paramount.

While nursery professionals in the West are doing all they can to effectively solve their drought issues, two companies in particular, one in Utah and the other in Colorado, have developed or implemented interesting products to help get the most from their irrigation systems.

Water Smarts. Steven Moore, president and general manager of Irrisoft, Inc., of North Logan, UT, uses a goldfish analogy to illustrate what happens when plant material is over-watered. "When kids first get a goldfish, they change the water everday," he begins. "After a few weeks, the chore gets boring, and soon you find the goldfish groping around the water's surface trying to get air. When we over-water (plants), we starve the roots of much needed oxygen."

Makes sense, doesn't it?

For many homeowners, however, surmising how much water is sufficient can seem like the riddle of the sphinx. But Irrisoft has developed a product that is helping landscape professionals solve this puzzle. Called Weather Reach, this innovation uses technology that, until now, has been economically feasible only for golf courses and high-end landscapes. "Weather-based control of landscape irrigation has been used for the past 20 years or more by golf courses," Moore explains. "We've developed a system that makes this same technology affordable for residents."

The system's Weather Reach Server collects data from a weather station and broadcasts the information via wireless paging to Weather Reach Receivers. The receivers then use hourly updates to calculate a landsce's water requirements. "A landscape's irrigation requirements are a simple calculation of how much water has evaporated minus effective rainfall," explains Moore. "The bottom line is this product only waters a landscape when it's needed." Additionally, the device is available in four interfaces that can adapt to any irrigation controller, making the product accessible to most homeowners, as well as commercial projects.

Having an irrigation system that can calculate when a landscape needs water based on weather conditions affords residential and commercial clients numerous benefits. "Less frequent, deep watering is good horticultural practice," Moore says. And because the West is seeing a drought that gives the dust bowl years a run for the money, knowing customers are irrigating their landscapes only when necessary brings peace of mind, as well as saves money. According to the company's Web site (www.weatherreach.com), end users can expect to see a 20 percent to 50 percent savings on their landscape's water use.

Everybody wants healthy landscapes; it's knowing how to achieve this end result that can be tricky. However, it looks as though the Weather Reach system may give landscapers a way to help customers maintain their beautiful yards while also conserving water and money. Now, if only the same could be done for the goldfish.

Saving drip by drip. Meanwhile, Box Elder Creek Nursery, Hudson, CO, is beginning to reap the fruit of an investment it made three years ago when it installed the T-Tape subsurface drip irrigation system on 14 of its 900 plus acres. The company plants about 1,000 trees per acre and carries a broad mix of maple, ash, linden, locust and serviceberry, as well as Austrian Ponderosa, and spruce pines.

T-Tape, from T-Systems International, Inc., San Diego, is installed at the time of planting approximately 12 inches below the surface at root depth. "Traditionally in this climate, we regularly flood irrigate," explains Mike Jeronimus one of four owners of Box Elder Nursery, Inc., Littleton, CO. "That field would probably take 15 to 20 acre-feet of water per year. With T-Tape, we are now under 5 acre-feet."

Because the field is fed from a municipal water source, flood irrigation would be cost-prohibitive. "But with using this tape we can farm there," Jeronimus says. An injector at the water source allows T-Tape to carry fertilizers directly to the roots through the system. "We are experiencing about 15 percent to 20 percent increase in growth rate," the professional reports.

Cost for the system runs about $500 per acre for the tape, with an additional $150 per acre for infrastructure costs. T-Tape is cut at each harvest and needs to be replaced with every new crop planting. However, Jeronimus estimates the nursery will likely recoup its investment cost this year through savings in labor costs and increase in growth. The nursery is planning to use the T-Tape system on an additional 100 acres next year.

As long as there's drought, water conservation will continue to be a major concern among nursery professionals and homeowners alike. With new technology and products coming out on the market, however, growers and landscapers can find efficient ways to minimize thier company's water use without drying out the business.

Article as appeared in American Nurseryman, September 2004, page 45.