If you’re planting a new orchard, the irrigation decision usually comes down to drip versus micro-sprinklers. Everyone knows drip saves water. Fewer people talk about how often micro-sprinklers are the better tool on sandy soil, in frost-prone areas, or under…
If you grow stone fruit, drip irrigation pays for itself faster than on almost any other orchard crop. Peaches, plums, cherries, and apricots all share one trait that makes drip such a clean fit: the crop you pick next summer…
Saudi Arabia and the UAE grow food on some of the hottest, saltiest, most water-starved land on earth, and they still export dates and greenhouse tomatoes to Europe and Asia every year. Drip irrigation is the tool that makes it…
Bananas drink more water than almost any crop you can name. A single banana plant in the tropics can pull 10 to 15 liters a day during peak growth. Over a full season, an acre of bananas in a hot…
Most farmers I talk to don’t need to be sold on automation. They’ve seen the controller boxes at the trade show. They’ve watched their neighbor check soil moisture from a phone. They get it. What they actually need is someone…
You walk into a greenhouse and every plant gets exactly the same amount of water. The tomatoes in the back corner, the basil on the middle bench, the seedlings on the propagation table. Same dripper flow rate, same run time,…
If you walk into any irrigation supply shop and ask for “drip emitters,” you’ll get three different answers depending on who’s behind the counter. That’s because “emitter” means different things to a row-crop farmer laying miles of disposable tape, a…
I’ve watched a lot of farmers treat chemical injection like an afterthought. They buy the injector, they eyeball the dose, and they run it when they remember. Six months later they’re replacing emitters and swearing at the filter housing. Chemical…
Avocados are a thirsty crop with a weird problem: they need consistent moisture but will die fast if their roots sit in water. Get it right and you’re looking at $8,000-15,000 per acre in gross returns for Hass in a…
Most drip irrigation systems run on a timer. You set it in May and don’t touch it until September. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Same duration, same start time, same amount of water, every single week. It’s the default because it’s easy.…
