Irrigating almonds with inches, not feet of waterWhen California almond farmer Donny Hicks said he was using 10 acre inches of water to irrigate...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
When California almond farmer Donny Hicks said he was using 10 acre inches of water to irrigate his orchard, folks thought he either misspoke or was blowing smoke.
“Inches?” he was asked.
He wasn’t blowing smoke, according to Joseph Gallegos of Umida Agriculture, a company specializing in a new method of delivering irrigation water to almonds.
This is significant because it is commonly believed almonds require four acre feet of water annually to produce a good crop. In other areas of his orchards Hicks will use upwards of 48 acre inches of water to achieve maximum yields that can exceed 4,000 pounds per acre.
The Umida system is a new subsurface irrigation system that delivers water in a shaped six-inch pipe. The pipes are buried four feet under every other row of almonds in a test plot at Hicks’ orchard in Hughson, Calif. The shaped pipe uses capillary functions to wick water through holes into the orchard rows and to the trees, Gallegos said.
Attached link
https://www.farmprogress.com/tree-nuts/irrigating-almonds-with-inches-not-feet-of-waterTaxonomy
- Basin Irrigation
- Drip Irrigation
- Irrigation
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