The summer season can be an excellent time for gardening, perfect for growing various seasonal vegetables, fruits, and flowers. But due to the high summer heat, the soil dries up faster, and plants cannot absorb water from the dry soil, making it necessary to water the plants more often.
Good watering habits, especially during the summer, will make the most of every precious drop of water. If you've heard of micro-irrigation before, it's the perfect time to adopt a watering system called drip irrigation.
Since drip irrigation was first introduced in the mid-20th century, it has revolutionized farming, especially for areas facing drought or arid conditions. It uses tubes or tapes and emitters to deliver trickles of water directly to plants. And when you're done with irrigation drip tapes, you can retrieve them quickly and efficiently using mechanized drip tape retrievers.
First, what is drip irrigation?
Drip irrigation is a micro-irrigation system that involves a controlled delivery of water to plants through a system of pipes, tubes, tapes, valves, and emitters. It is also known as trickle irrigation, as it delivers water in sufficient trickles to plants.
Other methods of watering crops, such as overhead sprinklers, spray water onto the plants' leaves and surrounding soil. This leads to uneven water distribution, wasting it in the process. It could even encourage some unwanted weeds to grow. Also, sprinklers waste more water through evaporation, as water turns into a mist before reaching the soil's surface.
On the other hand, drip irrigation delivers nutrients and water directly to the plant's root zone in sufficient drips and at the right time so that each plant will get the nourishment it needs. It proved to be the most efficient means of delivering water and nutrients to growing crops.
Using drip tape for watering gardens
An irrigation drip tape is one tool used to deliver water sufficiently to plant crops. It is a flat length of thin-walled tubing instead of the structural pipe. The drip tape lies flat on the ground before expanding when it is filled and pressurized with water. As the tape fills with water and expands, it is then perforated at even intervals or built with emitters that allow the water to drip into the soil, directly targeting the plants' roots.
You can install drip tapes on or just beneath the soil surface or mulches to irrigate the plants precisely.
Double Drip Tape Retriever from M.O.M.
When you're done irrigating your garden or field using drip tape, you can use a mechanized retriever to dispose of, reuse, or recycle your used drip tape.
The Double Drip Tape Retriever from the Italian manufacturer M.O.M. is used to extract, retrieve, and collect the irrigation drip tape from the garden or field.
The rotation of the winders takes place through a hydraulic motor with speed control. The collection of the dripline is made easier, more efficient, and more homogenous thanks to the great height from the ground of the guide rollers. This facilitates the detachment of the hose at an angle of 70 to 90 degrees, reducing breakages.
Using the double hose reel, you can water 8 to 10 rows simultaneously, saving time and effort.
The collected drip tape is unloaded using hydraulic cylinders that make the operation fast and safe.
The control station for an operator with a versatile tool basket completes the standard equipment.
Depending on your operating conditions (type of soil, the presence of weeds, etc.), the machine's average daily working capacity ranges from 8 to 12 hectares.
Mulching for retaining soil moisture
Mulching is also an excellent way to retain the soil's moisture from the intense summer heat. It is an age-old gardening or farming technique consisting of covering the soil with organic or inorganic material. The purpose of mulching is to keep the soil moist, preserving its good condition and helping the plants derive water and nutrients better, even without constant watering.
Organic mulches contain natural materials like wood chips, straw, hay, dried leaves, hulls, and compost. Small gardens and farms tend to use organic mulching to maintain the condition of the soil. Inorganic mulches, on the other hand, usually consist of sheets of plastic, nylon, woven polypropylene, or woven landscape fabrics. Most commercial farms and large vegetable or crop producers prefer to use inorganic mulches.
Mulch extraction and retrieval
Mulch retrievers do the same extraction and retrieval action as drip tape retrievers; only the former deal with used plastic or nylon mulches.
M.O.M. offers Mulch Retriever and Extractor Retriever machines designed to collect plastic sheets from greenhouses and across the field.
The rotation of the winder is carried out utilizing a hydraulic motor with rotation speed control. The unloading of the collected material is carried out by activating a hydraulic piston. The large guide roller facilitates the collection of the material, favoring the cleaning (elimination of water and residues present on the nylon) of the plastic sheets.
An average harvest of 8/10 hectares per day is estimated. Each of these machines has a toolbox that completes the structure of the reel.
Making sure your soil is in good condition is vital to keep the plants healthy during the summer season using a drip tape retriever. To know more about agricultural equipment from M.O.M. or any other brand, contact Solex at 707-678-5533. Solex distributes over 30 product lines from different U.S. and European manufacturers throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, and Washington.