Managing water in plant nurseries is the preeminent technical manual for irrigation, drainage and water recycling in Australia nursery production, and a benchmark text internationally. This 3rd edition is testimony to the ongoing value the industry places in achieving world-leading best practice in container irrigation, water management, recycling and reuse.
Contents
-
Foreword
- Chapter 1: Water supply
- How much water do you use?
- Calculating annual water requirements
- What water supply sources are available?
- Town water supply
- Regulatory requirements
- Permanent watercourse
- Underground water
- Treated sewage effluent and recycled drainage water
- Trends in water access and use in Australia
- Calculating drainage volumes
- Testing water quality
- Reducing nutrients and herbicides in the recycled storage
- Storages
- How to build your dam
- How to look after the dam
- Sealing a leaking dam
- Further reading
-
Chapter 2: Water quality and testing
- Quality of water from different sources
- System clogging
- Testing water quality
- Analysis and interpretation of irrigation water quality tests
- Further reading
-
Chapter 3: Disinfestation: water and irrigation as a source of disease
- Treating storage water for algae
- Treating water in recycling storages
- Treating water with acid
- Retarding sedimentation
- Coagulation
- Dealing with iron
- Dealing with manganese
- Dealing with sulfur
- Treating recycled water
- Non-chemical disinfestation treatments
- Chemical disinfestation treatments
- Chlorine dioxide
- Ozone
- Tips for successful disinfestation
- Plant disease
- Water as a source of disease
- Irrigation environment as a source of disease
- Effective drainage aids pathogen control
- Further reading
-
Chapter 4: Pumps and other irrigation equipment
- Some basic terms
- Pump suction line
- Pumps
- Pump selection
- Suction performance and cavitation
- Pump control systems
- Irrigation control systems
- Starters for electric motors
- Protection equipment
- Delivery fittings
- Piping
- Valves
- Air chambers
- Filters
- Injection equipment
- Disinfestation equipment
- Speed control
- Pressure gauges and adaptors
- Automatic watering systems
- Chapter 5 - Nursery filtration system
- Filter selection
- Filtration equipment
- Filtration system layout
- Cleaning filters
- Maintaining filtration equipment
- Chapter 6:Top-watering irrigation systems
- Fixed overhead sprinkler systems
- Efficient overhead watering
- Calculating how much shelter
- Mobile boom systems
- Hand watering
- Drip irrigation
- Further reading
- Chapter 7: Bottom-watering irrigation systems
- How sub-irrigation works
- Ebb and flow (flood and drain) systems
- Flood floor systems
- Trough systems
- Capillary mat systems
- Sandbed capillary systems
- Management considerations for bottom watering systems
- Plant nutrition in closed systems
- Algae and plant pathologens in closed systems
- Further reading
- Chapter 8: Misting and fogging systems
- Greenhouse environment
- Misting control systems
- Direct sensors
- Indirect sensors
- Time control
- Where to put sensors
- Fog systems
- In conclusion
- Chapter 9: Growing media and irrigation management
- Commonly used components
- Which growing medium?
- Designing a growing medium
- Further reading
- Chapter 10: System design, operation and maintenance
- Applying water evenly
- Applying the right amount of water often enough to meet the plants needs
- Applying water in the time available
- Planning your irrigation system
- Sprinkler layouts
- Operating your irrigation system
- Evaluating and maintaining the system
- System maintenance
- Chapter 11 - Fertigation in nurseries
- Is fertigation compatible with the irrigation system?
- Systems compatible with fertigation
- Pump injection systems
- Concentrated fertiliser solution tanks
- How is fertigation delivered?
- What fertilisers can be used with fertigation?
- How do you work out how much fertiliser to use?
- Delivering other fertiliser elements
- How is the fertigation system managed?
- An effective tool
- Chapter 12: Drainage systems
- Site assessment
- Drainage discharges and capacities
- Drainage systems
- Disposal of water
- Reference and further reading
- Glossary
- Chemicals
- Compounds
- Guide to measurements
- Conversion table (metric to US imperial)
- Index
Editor: Michelle Smith
ISBN: 9781760584566 | 249 pages | A4
Catalogue number: B989
Publisher: NSW Department of Primary Industries | 2021