I watched a tomato grower in Almería, Spain drain 4,000 liters of irrigation water into a gully behind her greenhouse and thought: that’s not runoff, that’s a second paycheck going down the drain. Greenhouse water recycling isn’t some lab experiment…
What a Pressure-Compensating Emitter Actually Does A standard drip emitter works fine at a specific pressure, usually around 1.0 bar. Push 1.0 bar through a 2 L/h non-PC emitter and you get roughly 2 liters per hour. Nothing complicated. But…
The Groundwater Crisis Nobody Wants to Talk About India uses more groundwater than any country on earth. About 250 cubic kilometers a year, roughly a quarter of global groundwater extraction. Most of it goes to agriculture. And the water table…
Why Hand-Mixing Fertilizer Is Costing You More Than You Think Walk through a greenhouse in midsummer and you will see the same thing everywhere: someone dragging a hose, mixing a tank of fertilizer by eye, guessing at concentrations. It works.…
You set up your drip irrigation system in April. Everything ran fine through May. Then July hits, the temperature climbs past 35°C, and suddenly half your tomato rows look stressed while the other half are sitting in puddles. You walk…
Why Drip Irrigation Is Catching on in East Africa (And Where It Still Falls Short) I spent a week last year talking to smallholder coffee farmers in Kenya’s Kirinyaga County. Most of them water by hand, carrying buckets or dragging…
Most drip irrigation advice assumes you’ve got a pump and a steady power supply. Walk onto a lot of small farms in East Africa or the hills of Southeast Asia and that assumption falls apart. The pump either doesn’t exist…
I’ve watched farmers put the same drip system on flat ground and on a slope, expecting the same results. They don’t get them. Water pools at the bottom. Plants at the top of the hill look stressed. Nobody told them…
If you’ve ever stood in a farm supply shop staring at rolls of black tubing, white PVC pipes, and blue layflat hoses wondering which one actually belongs in your drip system, you’re not alone. I’ve seen farmers walk out with…
Irrigation Pump Selection: How to Pick the Right Pump Without Overspending Most farmers I’ve talked to either bought a pump that’s too big or one that’s too small. The too-big crowd paid extra for horsepower they don’t need, burning extra…
