I spent a morning last summer watching a neighbor’s orchard sprinklers throw water onto a gravel access road. He’d swapped in whatever nozzles the local supplier had in stock. Half of them were running at pressures they weren’t designed for.…
Polish apple grower Marek Kowalski runs 12 hectares in the Grójec region. His water bill in July 2023 hit €2,400. This July, after switching half his orchard to drip, it was €1,650. When the full 12 hectares convert, he expects…
If you’ve ever cut open a section of drip tape at the end of a season and found it coated in green slime, you already know the problem. If you haven’t cut one open yet, you should. What’s growing inside…
A greenhouse is a closed environment. That’s the whole point. It traps heat, blocks pests, and lets you control what happens to your crop. But sealing the place up also traps one other thing: a shortage of carbon dioxide. Plants…
Most farms water every acre the same way. Same rate, same schedule, same everything. Walk across a 40-hectare field and you’ll see why that’s a problem. The low spot in the northwest corner holds water like a sponge. The sandy…
Carrots are picky about water. Not in the way tomatoes or peppers are. Those crops wilt dramatically when they’re thirsty and you get a clear signal. Carrots punish you silently. You won’t know you got it wrong until harvest, when…
Most farmers I talk to irrigate on gut feeling. They walk the field, squeeze a handful of soil, look at the sky, and decide. It works until it doesn’t. A hot week you didn’t catch, a rain that came after…
Potatoes are picky about water. Not in a dramatic way. They won’t wilt at the first sign of dry soil like lettuce will. But get the moisture wrong and the damage shows up where you can’t see it: underground, in…
Farming on a Caribbean island is not like farming on a continental landmass. You are surrounded by water you cannot drink, the dry season lasts six months, and a September hurricane can undo a year of infrastructure in an afternoon.…
If you farm with irrigation, you own canvas hoses. They move water from the pump to the field, from the mainline to the sprinkler, from the pond to the drip system. They get dragged across gravel, left in the sun,…
