Time that cannot be divided up at will, because if the watering is only a little too late, the plants may have already been damaged. Often the entire garden irrigation has not yet been solved to the complete satisfaction of the garden owner. Can you perhaps learn something from commercial cultivation? Perhaps carousel irrigation from commercial cultivation can also be used well for the home garden?
What is carousel irrigation?
The carousel irrigation works with rotating sprinkler systems through which the water is applied. These sprinklers can be several hundred meters in diameter when grown for commercial purposes. Large, rotating booms usually irrigate a field. This makes carousel irrigation one of the irrigation systems that the surface irrigation system faces.
Advantages of carousel irrigation
If used correctly, all irrigation systems save water because they can be dosed very precisely. In addition, these irrigation systems can be used flexibly, regardless of the surface properties and can be adjusted on request. The irrigation itself can also be well dosed and timed. This can avoid wasted water by z. B. not watered in the midday heat. With such irrigation, pesticides and fertilizers can also be applied at the same time
With a carousel irrigation, the plants are watered as if they were exposed to natural rain, many plants thrive this way very well. The carousel systems are usually installed once, after which they no longer need to be monitored, and the surrounding land is evenly irrigated. If at the right time
and is irrigated in the right amount, there is neither soil silting nor high evaporation losses.Disadvantages of carousel irrigation
Like any irrigation system, carousel irrigation requires sophisticated technology. It is therefore quite expensive, both in terms of acquisition and operating costs (maintenance costs). Even carousel irrigation cannot do without the gardener's regular work - if that is the case Carousel is not moved occasionally, only certain circular fields would be irrigated.
If winds of certain strengths frequently occur in a region, this makes uniform irrigation more difficult. The carousel irrigation can also only irrigate areas in an even amount, it does not take into account an increased water requirement of certain individual areas. Carousel irrigation can only be used on a treeless area.
Excessive carousel irrigation can lower the water table, Capillary forces then push the water to the surface of the soil, where it constantly evaporates the soil becomes too salty.
The editors' conclusion
Carousel irrigation therefore requires a high level of knowledge about the water requirements of the soil and must be constantly adapted
be applied very carefully to the weather conditions so that they do not damage the soil. That is why carousel irrigation is mainly used in commercial cultivation in arid, dry climates Areas with a natural water shortage, where a large area can be irrigated with as little effort as possible got to.Wherever possible, another type of irrigation is used in such areas, namely the Drip irrigation, in which the plants are supplied with water directly into the root area via tubes or drip hoses. With such drip irrigation, the risk of too much watering is also much lower.
The second type of irrigation used in commercial farming, surface irrigation, can hardly be transferred to the home garden. At most, furrow irrigation (a type of surface irrigation in which the irrigation water flows in furrows through the Rows of plants) should be attempted on a hillside, while irrigation by flooding (the classic Surface irrigation when growing citrus fruits and rice) with us probably on the occasional flooding of dried out potted plants will remain limited.