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I just got back from touring Oregon and Washington and I got to see a lot of fascinating agriculture. Primarily hazelnut trees along with some berries other spe
by datavirtue 5y ago
I just got back from touring Oregon and Washington and I got to see a lot of fascinating agriculture. Primarily hazelnut trees along with some berries other speciality crops and "hay."
The nut tree farmers need some help. They are spraying water scattershot to soak the ground. What's more is that they have the ground prepared as perfectly flat bare soil--I presume to make automated harvesting possible.
It looks like a lot of resources are allocated to this rather imprecise method of irrigation and as the droughts and heat persist I could see this failing to scale. It doesn't look like it scales very well even in good times.
I was wondering, given the very organized situation of the trees and ground, why are they not using direct or site-based (drip?) irrigation? It would definitely change the watering process from one of rolling and unrolling irrigation line and towing of sprinklers (water canons?) to one where you would automate water delivery via a network of lines with computers and have workers monitor and repair lines as needed.
- mastax 5y agoDrip irrigation works best when delivering water directly to the roots of small annual plants. Trees have large root systems, and are planted closely enough that you need to water the entire ground. Perhaps a network of smaller sprayers below the leaf canopy would reduce evaporative losses.
- kickout 5y agoThere does exist sub-surface irrigation setups. They aren't popular, but obviously would deliver water closer to the roots of tree. Note: I haven't ever seen a tree farm with sub-surface irrigation, only annual fruits/vegetables/crops https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/agriculture/subsurface-drip-irrigation-sdi-4-716/ https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/agriculture/subs...
- cjrp 5y agoI wonder if there's any benefit to water hitting the leaves on the way down to the soil, i.e. cleaning the leaves. I know indoor plants require cleaning, but perhaps that's specifically because they're indoors.
- hammock 5y agoDepends. In many cases that's something to avoid, e.g. moisture can promote the growth of undesirable molds or other pathogens, or wash off pesticides that you wanted to stay.
- NoSorryCannot 5y agoThere are rarely any good reasons to wet the top of a plant and several downsides. Dust generally isn't an issue for outdoor plants, especially not in Washington or Oregon, and especially not for deciduous trees.
- kickout 5y agoIndoor plants require cleaning? Any links to that? first i've heard or seen that statement. I can't imagine ANY justification for literally cleaning a plant that just happens to be grown indoors...?
- tastyfreeze 5y agoDust on the leaves blocks light. Yes, you must clean your indoor plants. Outdoor plants get rained on. You can do the same for indoor plants by giving them a rinse occasionally.
- amanaplanacanal 5y agoI believe they keep bare soil under hazelnuts because they harvest by collecting the fallen nuts.