Benaraby Junction Nursery, located near Gladstone, is a production nursery supplying their own retail facility as well as landscaping projects in the region. Over a period of 21 years Colin Olsen and Judy Turner have implemented a number of water efficiency measures both prior to, and during the Rural Water Use Efficiency Initiative (RWUEI) project…
The Portable Weight Based Scheduling Tool has been developed to assist growers in Nursery Production obtain a better understanding of their irrigation scheduling options to improve on-farm water use efficiency.
During low rainfall periods, a considered strategy is required to make the best use of available water resources. Rather than make decisions on the fly, a pre-determined plan can be put in place to ensure the most efficient use of the available water is achieved. The plan should include measuring available water and water use,…
How much do you know about your irrigation and drainage? Knowledge of your irrigation and drainage systems helps you to make informed decisions on required system changes. This fact sheet provides a short questionnaire to help identify those areas you may need to look at to improve your irrigation and drainage systems.
In this month’s Nursery Papers, former NSW Department of Agriculture officer, creator of the Waterwork training course and renowned industry ‘water guru’ Chris Rolfe explains how you can manage your watering regime to better match the water requirements of your plants.
Birdwood Nursery: Water Use Efficiency
Water availability has not been a major concern to the nursery industry until recently. Increased urban pressure, recent drought conditions, and climate change concerns have shifted the community and grower focus more to water availability, use, and sustainability.
Irrigation controllers are an integral part of an efficient irrigation system. A well selected irrigation controller can significantly reduce labour costs and improve plant quality, while also reducing water use.
There are many ways that water can be saved in a production nursery. This fact sheet lists ten suggestions.
Hand watering is a common practice in many production and retail nurseries, with 55% of production nurseries using this method to some degree. Sometimes hand watering is regarded as an efficient irrigation method without full knowledge of the underlying principals and actual efficiencies of alternative methods. During 2008, DPI&F, Qld conducted an investigation into the…