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California Drought Continues to Cause Irrigation Cutbacks
California, which has already reduced water deliveries received through the State Water Project to zero or near zero levels, has now stopped water diversions for thousands of farmers and other users in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed
By Tom Linden
August 11, 2021
California, which has already reduced water deliveries received through the State Water Project to zero or near zero levels, has now stopped water diversions for thousands of farmers and other users in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed.
In early August, the California State Water Resources Control Board unanimously voted 5-0 to put new limitations on 5,700 water right holders, including farmers and landowners, preventing them from diverting more than 55 gallons per day from their adjacent water sources without prior approval. These users have long term water rights based on the location of their land adjacent to these water sources. In addition, all water use has to be reported by those who have water rights in the region. Failure to comply will result in significant fines, including penalties as high as $1,000 per day, as well as up to $2,500 for each acre-foot of water diverted without expressed permission.
The new diversion ban is expected to be approved by California’s Office of Administrative Law by mid-August.
This action stems from California’s worsening drought situation as a very dry winter has been followed by high summer temperatures adding to the state’s dire situation.
While more cutbacks to farmers are not a welcome sight, representatives of agriculture and the state’s many water districts were not summarily opposed to the State Water Board’s action. Many groups weighed in on the proposed diversion ban with many of their comments concerning the length of the ban and the mechanics of it. Western Growers, which represents many growers in the state, officially commented on the regulations as a signee of a letter generated by like associations in California.
Gail Delihant, senior director of state government affairs and a water expert for the association, agreed the state is in bad shape and efforts to better manage water use are needed. In fact, she said, “Rules mandating large amounts of water to be released from reservoirs and flushed out to the ocean in prior months and years have gotten us into this current situation. The state water system was designed for dry periods like this. We are in dire straits because of implementation of environmental rules from the State Water Board and the environmental rules due to the federal and state Endangered Species Acts.”
She said the excess use of stored water for unattainable environmental goals has depleted the resources to a critically low level.
She noted this particular ban of water diversion was ordered because the state is not achieving the environmental results it expected with the amount of water it has released from the state’s Shasta and Oroville reservoirs that was pumped through the delta and out to sea to curb salt intrusion. She said the state’s water officials are theorizing that more water is being diverted from the delta by adjacent users than is being reported. Hence, the board is banning water diversions to ensure water quality standards are able to be met.
What Western Growers and other groups are lobbying for are mitigation efforts to increase storage as soon as possible once the rainy season begins, if it does.
More water restrictions in California are expected in the coming weeks as the drought intensifies.
Adapter To Fool-Proof Irrigation In Vertical Farming System
Aponix’ Vertical Barrel systems have been on the market for a while now, and since their conception, they have offered an alternative to rack systems as a way of making use of three-dimensional growing spaces. Aponix is releasing some new additions to make the system even more easy to use
Marco Tidona from Aponix talks about new accessories for the Aponix vertical barrels
Aponix’ Vertical Barrel systems have been on the market for a while now, and since their conception, they have offered an alternative to rack systems as a way of making use of three-dimensional growing spaces. Aponix is releasing some new additions to make the system even more easy to use. A new adapter to simplify irrigation with the Barrel, and a new larger and soil-based XL Vertical Barrel. Marco Tidona with Aponix: “We wanted to come with a solution that would make irrigation foolproof, so we built an adapter.”
Water Adapter
Irrigation in the cylinders requires a different approach than growers are used to. “To irrigate with the barrel all you have to do is put liquid on the inside surface at the highest point, gravity will pull it down and the wing system inside will make sure is an even spread,” says Marco. “We have been testing with different kinds of irrigation methods. One simple method is to just attach an inverted sprinkler, but these additions and sprinklers needed to be used with caution, but some users didn’t. Most of the users had irrigation cycles that lasted for too long and so there was too much liquid and they drowned their plants.”
In order to come up with a solution “We wanted to come with a solution that would make irrigation foolproof, so we built an adapter. The adapter can be integrated with all Netafim spraying mechanisms. It allows us to fix the drip stop to the lid of the barrel, and then the grower can define the flowrate using the Netafim equipment.”
Lego pieces
The Vertical Barrel system is a cylindrical alternative to the typical vertical farming solution of racks. “The Barrel is constructed of individual pieces, each ring consists of 6 pieces that click into each other like Lego pieces,” says Marco, emphasizing the ease of use of the system. “The rings can be stacked on top of each other to create the barrel, this way you can define the height of the barrel yourself. We have several different pieces that are suited for different types of produce so you can configure for different types of plants to optimize the cultivation area. The cultivation area is the outside of the cylinders, and with the variable height and the possibility to chain multiple of these units, the idea is to have an alternative for a rack system in vertical farming.”
So what are the benefits of growing with the cylindrical surface of the Barrel? “When you build racks, you cannot use natural sunlight,” says Marco. “On top of that you also get microclimate issues – plus when you go very high you need these scissor lifts or climbing equipment. The Barrel is an alternative that allows you to grow vertically in a greenhouse and use natural light.”
Though the system is already quite complete, a lot of additions are being planned in order to get it technologically up to par with other vertical farming solutions. “We are also expanding the system to have plant trellis holders left and right of the grow spaces,” says Marco. “Also we are working on ways to manage the microclimate, there will be an area where you can attach an airhole next to the grow spaces which can finetune the humidity and could also fertigate CO2. These things are necessary to compete with all the high-tech solutions that are already out there.”
Credibility
It can be quite difficult to get your foot in the door with a new product in the horticultural industry. “It took a lot of time to get slight credibility,” says Marco. “I remember the first year I was presenting this new technique at GreenTech, people thought it was just a gadget for your living room – they didn’t take it seriously. They didn’t see it as serious growing equipment, because it wasn’t what they knew – it wasn’t gutters and tables. So I am now trying to get this credibility by integrating and getting a lot of help from Gakon.”
According to Marco, Gakon are a very important partner for Aponix. “Gakon are helping me to add all these gadgets and functions that they know from the standard equipment they are using for large scale production. We are collecting ideas from them for the practical side, and we are translating them for vertical barrels. Gakon have been a major help for getting taken seriously. They have their partner companies, with whom they discuss our products. One such partner company is Hortilux, for lighting. With the help of Gakon, Hortilux are creating lighting plans for use with our barrels.”
The future
Marco believes that there is still a lot of future potential for the Vertical Barrels, and these new accessories are a step forward. “All the processes that are normally part of larger commercial operations are missing,” he says. “This product has the potential, but I need to find strategic partners who actually have the experience in the market and want to have a future alternative to racks. More and more big players in the industry are understanding the value of my product and inviting me to talk to them.”
Marco continues: “I had an interesting conversation with a company from the UK. They are building this robot that you can put over your raised beds and it functions like an agricultural printer: it irrigates, plants seeds, it takes care of your plants, and it’s fully automatic. This company is thinking about putting one of these robots, but with a circular arm, on top of my barrels. So it’s not using a flat surface like you have in a raised bed, but the round surface coming from the top and circling around. The future is looking exciting, but I am still looking for more people that believe in my product and want to support it in ways that I alone cannot.”
For more information:
Marco Tidona
Aponix
Publication date: Tue, 08 Oct 2019
Author: Brian de Lint
© HortiDaily.com
Testing The Waters - Is Public Drinking Water Safe For Hydroponic Production?
The quality of the irrigation water with respect to chemical, microbial and physical properties affects crop quality and health. No matter what, test the chemical parameters of your irrigation water!
Fig. 1. Sensitivity of Petunia x hybrida to free chlorine in irrigation water. Plants were irrigated with 0, 2 and 4 ppm free chlorine with every irrigation. Chlorosis was observed at 4 ppm or greater.Photos courtesy of Rosa E. Raudales, Cora McGehee and Juan Cabrera
The quality of the irrigation water with respect to chemical, microbial and physical properties affects crop quality and health. Growers producing edibles are also concerned about the risk of spreading waterborne human pathogens during production and postharvest. Many growers resolve to use water from public water systems to lower the risk of foodborne illnesses and avoid the hassle of testing and treating water. However, growers must always monitor the chemical parameters of irrigation water to grow high-quality crops. This article explains why growers should test “clean” water.
Public drinking water must meet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) drinking water standards established in the Safe Drinking Water Act. EPA sets regulatory limits for microbial contaminants, among others. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indicates that “water that meets the microbial standards for drinking water is considered safe and sanitary” and is recommended in the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and Good Handling Practices (GHP) certification guidelines. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) waives microbial testing of water if the source comes from a public water system and has a certification of treatment and sampling. Hence, many growers adopt public drinking water for irrigation and postharvest. However, public water facilities inject chlorine, also an EPA-regulated contaminant, to control microbes in drinking water. Chlorine in irrigation water can be toxic to crops.
Chlorine chemistry
Chlorine is an effective germicidal agent for removing pathogens from water. Chlorine is added to water as a gas, liquid (e.g. sodium hypochlorite, AKA bleach) or solid (e.g. calcium hypochlorite), or generated via membrane electrolysis. All chlorine sources react with water and form hypochlorous acid (HOCl). Further dissociation of HOCl will result in hypochlorite (OCl-) and hydrogen (H+) ions. The sum of HOCl and OCl- is known as free chlorine; both are sanitizing agents. Hypochlorous acid is the strongest form of chlorine sanitizer.
Hypochlorous acid reacts with nitrogen-containing compounds, both organic and inorganic, to form chloramines. Chloramines are a combined chlorine form. Chloramines have a lower disinfection efficacy and longer residual effect than free chlorine.
The sum of free and combined chlorine is total chlorine. Growers can measure all forms of chlorine with colorimetric kits.
Fig. 2. Sensitivity of lettuce to free chlorine in irrigation water. Plants were irrigated with 0, 0.5 and 1 ppm free chlorine with every irrigation.Photo courtesy of Rosa E. Raudales, Cora McGehee and Juan Cabrera
Phytotoxicity
In separate experiments, our team from the University of Connecticut and researchers at the University of Guelph and the University of Florida, have established that most container-grown crops can be irrigated with up to 2 ppm (or mg/L) free chlorine without causing phytotoxicity (Fig. 1). Target doses to control plant pathogens and phytotoxicity thresholds vary by crop-pathogen combination.
Chlorine demand is the difference between the initial (applied) and residual (measured after a given contact time) concentration. The organic matter in the substrate reacts with chlorine and exerts chlorine demand. Hence the recommendations for container-soilless media cannot be directly applied to hydroponically grown crops.
We tested the sensitivity of lettuce to chlorine in hydroponic production. We observed reduction in plant weight when the concentration was as low as 0.5 ppm free chlorine (Fig. 2).
The phytotoxicity symptoms caused by chlorine on hydroponically grown young lettuce plants can be confused with root rot or nutrient deficiencies (Fig. 3). In contrast, the symptoms in mature plants are not very distinctive (Fig. 2). For this reason, sending symptomatic (and healthy) plants to a diagnostic clinic and monitoring the chemistry of nutrient solutions is an important part of the diagnosis.
Fig. 3. Lettuce seedling with phytotoxicity caused by chlorinePhoto courtesy of Rosa E. Raudales, Cora McGehee and Juan Cabrera
Testing and treating the waters
The maximum chlorine level allowed in drinking water is 4 ppm. Public water treatment facilities can change chlorine residual levels, reaching up to 4 ppm combined or free chlorine, without notifying the end-user. Therefore, growers using public drinking water must include chlorine in their standard water-testing practice.
Hanna Instruments, Hach and similar companies have developed kits that can be used to measure chlorine in-house.
For more information
Good Agricultural Practices and Good Handling Practices
We do not know yet the phytotoxicity thresholds of free or combined chlorine for most hydroponically grown crops. For this reason, we recommend that growers measure total chlorine.
Growers using public water should have a water treatment option to remove chlorine from the water. The options include activated carbon filters, sodium thiosulfate and aeration.
Take-home message: No matter what, test the chemical parameters of your irrigation water!
Rosa (rosa.raudales@uconn.edu) is an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut and Cora and Juan are Ph.D. students at the University of Connecticut.
Disclaimer: Trade names are included in this publication as a convenience to readers and to illustrate examples of technologies. The use of brand names and any mention or listing of commercial products or services does not imply endorsement by the University of Connecticut, nor discrimination against similar products or services not mentioned.
The Multiple Benefits of Aqua4D
The Multiple Benefits of Aqua4D
Month by month, year by year, Aqua-4D Water Solutions has achieved consistently impressive results across the globe, enabling farmers to increase yields and profits while overcoming poor soil and water conditions.
Almonds and vegetables in California. Tomatoes in Italy, Spain, and Tunisia. Grapes in Ethiopia. Olives in India. Melons and other fruits in Brazil. According to the company growers of any kind, who invested in Aqua-4D Water Solutions, register better yields in an environmentally friendly, chemical-free and sustainable fashion. "Better yet, the benefits continue to accrue as long as the system is in continuous operation. Salts and other harmful elements are leached from the soil, nematodes are repelled from root zones, and reductions in water and fertilizer usage become permanent."
In most situations, the ROI – a key metric for savvy agribusiness operators – can be realized in two years or less. It is one of the primary reasons why growers in more than 40 countries have turned to Aqua-4D.
International results
The Aqua-4D system relies on a combination of proven Swiss technology and empirical data collected over more than a decade from orchards, vineyards and fields around the world.
The system uses a finely calibrated electromagnetic signal to treat irrigation water before it is applied to crops. The system dissolves minerals and other organic material in the water into smaller elements, immediately improving any plant’s ability to better absorb what it needs in the proper proportions.
Yields increase from 6% to as much as 40% or more across all crop types. Consistent improvements in the size and quality of the fruit or vegetable, leaf structure, and root development have been measured.
“Thanks to the Aqua-4D system, we have improved the overall quality of our fruits and have noted an increase in production to the m2, all while still irrigating with a highly charged water,” said Richard August Muller, Chief Financial Officer of Agricola Famosa, one of the largest growers in Brazil. (For more, please see this video interview.)
In Ethiopia, the general manager of an influential French wine company growing premium grapes in Ethiopia credits Aqua-4D for a 35% reduction in water use and 20% increase in yield.
“With the installation of the Aqua-4D system on a 7-hectare plot, we observed important water savings, a significant production increase as well as improved foliage,” said Bernard Coulais of Castel Group. “We are very satisfied with these results, which responded to our needs.”
U.S. farmers turning to Aqua-4D
American farmers are quickly coming to realize what their peers in other parts of the world already know – the Aqua-4D system is for real and can provide tangible results within weeks of installation.
In the past two years, more than 20 large-scale farming operations have agreed to test the Aqua-4D system, a process the company calls “validation.” A key part of the company’s strategy to show growers the system works is to require side-by-side comparisons so key data can be measured and analyzed.
All factors are controlled so that one field, orchard or vineyard receives water treated with the Aqua-4D system while the other section does not. The water comes from the same source, and the crop types and soil profiles are identical.
Growers in the San Joaquin and Salinas valleys in California have signed up. Many have doubled down on their investment because of positive validation results. Coming off a five-year drought that stretched already thin water supplies in the valley – and facing the prospect of another dry winter this year – farmers know they must again be frugal with every drop. Aqua-4D allows them to do that, easily adapting to almost all micro-drip and high-efficiency delivery systems.
Apple farmers in Washington are the latest to join the team. They are turning to Aqua-4D to help them successfully deal with chronically high salinity levels in their irrigation water and soil.
Strawberry and vegetable growers in Florida, a cotton grower in Arizona and greenhouses in Canada also have achieved remarkable results with the Aqua-4D system. They join a base of satisfied ag customers that spans the globe – from Brazil to Italy, Africa and the Middle East all the way to India.
The water treated by the Aqua-4D system is permanently transformed. Like an electric wire connected to a live power source, the water emerging from the Aqua-4D tubes will retain its new characteristics as long as it remains in contact (via irrigation lines) with a system that is turned on. Distance away from the system does not make a difference.
The system is eco-friendly and completely sustainable. There are no magnets or filters to change, dangerous chemicals to handle or toxic elements to dispose of, making maintenance simple and convenient. Even better, the system requires little power and adapts easily to small solar panel arrays.
For more information:
Aqua-4D Water Solutions
Technopole 5, 3960 Sierre, Switzerland
Javier Meyer, Marketing & Sales Manager
M: +41 78 624 07 17
T: +41 27 552 03 35
E: meyer@aqua4d.com
www.aqua4d.com
Publication date: 3/12/2018