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posted by martyb on Monday August 01 2016, @10:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the growing-awareness dept.

Irrigation is more than just throwing water on a field—it can be a nuanced chemical conversation between humans and plants

[...] When it comes to irrigation, water is not simply water.

This is dogma to John Kempf, an Ohio farmer who has made a career of improving crop health and agriculture yields. In 2006, Kempf founded the company Advancing Eco Agriculture, a consulting service for farmers that provides testing and analysis of crop specimens and recommends various plant nutrition treatments to improve crop yields.

The sources of water used for crops—be it well, river or reservoir—vary as to the mineral salts that they carry. The degree to which salts are present in water is referred to as "hardness," generally described in terms of grains per gallon. ("Salt" in this context is not what you'd sprinkle on scrambled eggs, but the combination of elements with a positive charge [cation] and negative charge [anion].) Kempf says that poor water quality, specifically water with high levels of calcium carbonate (lime), is a problem not often acknowledged in public discussions of agriculture—but one that affects crop production and, ironically, leads to a higher use of water.

"The level of minerals affects not only plants' ability to absorb water, but also how the plant can absorb nutrition," says Kempf. "Hard water requires more energy, and therefore nutrition, to break it down. When water quality is poor, more water is required." Farms do regularly test for water quality, and he says that when a potential client's water source has more than five grains per gallon he recommends that it be treated.

"When farms irrigate with poor-quality water there are multiple effects," he says. "It ties up all the nutrients that have been applied in the form of fertilizers. It significantly suppresses soil biology. And what often happens is that sodium and calcium bicarbonates accumulate in the soil profile. This leads to salinity."

Please, read the article — it's simply too long to copy/paste here. It goes into some (minor) detail regarding agriculture's problem with nitrogen. That is, there is a lot of nitrogen, but little of it is available to plants. Excess application of nitrogen fertilizers of course end up in the water supplies, in cities, rivers, and oceans.

Once again, we are shown that nature is a delicate balancing act. One that we routinely disrupt, then wonder why our food crops aren't healthy.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 02 2016, @02:53AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday August 02 2016, @02:53AM (#382968) Journal

    I don't have an answer to that, Frojack. I suppose that some farmers have an option of taking their water from a river, or a lake, or thier own pond - while a lot of other farmers have no choice but to use well water. Some may have the option of using "city water", such as our local Rural Development Authority. Of course, "city water" introduces chlorine and flouride into the equation. Chlorine isn't hard to deal with - just fill an open tank, and allow the water to stand for a day before using it. The chlorine evaporates, and can't do any harm to the plants or livestock.

    Good question - how DOES anyone go about treating their irrigation water?

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2016, @03:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2016, @03:12AM (#382975)

    lmgtfy -- plenty of links, one of the first: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamental/greenhouse-management/treating-irrigation-water/ [tamu.edu]

    Adjusting the pH of Irrigation Water
    Soluble Salts

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Tuesday August 02 2016, @04:26AM

      by frojack (1554) on Tuesday August 02 2016, @04:26AM (#382993) Journal

      Interesting, but impractical. The linked article is talking about green houses growing flowers.

      You might be able to manage the PH, but you aren't going to remove the salts in acre feet of water without some fancy chemistry on a large scale.

       

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