Tips For Top-quality Irrigation Water For Intensive Cropping

Growers of irrigated crops need to have access to properly treated irrigation water. Mike Kruger, owner of Top Crop Nursery, explains how he uses flocculation and chlorination to maximise the safety of the water he sources from the nearby Umgeni River. Lloyd Phillips reports.

- 

Mike Kruger has produced a variety of forestry, fruit, lawn and ornamental plant seedlings under intensive conditions in KwaZulu-Natal’s Cramond area since the 1980s. During this time, he has learnt that irrigating his crops with contaminant-free water is an absolute necessity.

Untreated irrigation water can carry pathogens that move easily from plant to plant within the densely populated growing area with its hundreds of thousands of seedlings. Some pathogens negatively affect the health of the plants; others can contaminate the produce.

Untreated irrigation water can also introduce undesirable algae and slime into the growing area, and even become a conduit for damage-causing nematodes among the plants.

Top Crop Nursery draws irrigation water from the Umgeni River, 400m from the nursery.

“Over the years, the quality of water from the river has deteriorated. From about 15 years ago, we had to start treating it before applying it to the seedlings,” recalls Kruger.

CHOOSING THE METHOD

As the pH level and quantity of total dissolved solids in the water varied almost daily, it was difficult to decide on the most cost-effective treatment. After extensive research and consultation with water quality experts, Kruger settled on a treatment system that uses flocculation followed by chlorination.

“With the right infrastructure, knowledge and handling, this has proven to be an excellent water purification system for us,” he says.