A Refresher on Dealing With Drought Conditions
Drought has always caused greenhouse nursery crop producers great concern. If irrigation water becomes limiting, growers producing crops in containers may lose their entire crop. Newly planted field-grown crops also sustain heavy losses if they are not irrigated frequently during the first year of production.
Although established field-grown nursery stock will survive if not irrigated during periods of drought, they will not grow under these conditions. Adequate moisture during field production will produce field-grown shade trees of marketable size in three to five years. Poorly irrigated plants will take longer to reach marketable size, thus lengthening the time cost of production.
With much of the Western U.S. and portions of the East experiencing drought conditions, North Carolina State University Extension offers several helpful tips on how to minimize drought effects in container production. For example, in recent years, nurseries have adopted several water-conservation practices. Low-pressure/low-volume irrigation systems, which use drip emitters or spray-stakes, are being used for both field-production of nursery crops and large-container (5, 25, 50, 100, 200 gallons and larger) crop production. These emitters often require only 10 to 20 pounds per square inch (psi) pressure and 0.5 to 15 gallons per hour of water. Where there are long distribution lines or uneven terrain, pressure-compensated emitters are available to ensure even distribution of water.
Learn more here.
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