PROBLEM/Solution
Is Hard Water Impacting Your Bottom Line?
Problem: A customer called with increasing irrigation problems. His aging irrigation infrastructure was failing to deliver adequate water supply to different sections of his farm and was becoming more problematic with each season. During his grow periods, he would see random sections of plants begin to wilt due to lack of water. He was also experiencing declining water volumes at the furthest points of his watering zones now affecting consistency in his plant quality. Testing his water revealed hardness levels of 22 ppm. Hardness at these levels was a major contributor of locked soils, affecting the adequate delivery of water and nutrients to the plants’ roots. The other problem was the calcification, or clogging of the delivery system, especially at the emitters.
Solution: Our remedy was twofold. We installed a duplex water softening system so when one softener was regenerating, the second softener would continue to process the hard water. We replaced his irrigation pump resizing it to compensate for the friction losses in the irrigation lines and the increased elevation at the further points of the irrigation zones. We installed a VFD (variable frequency drive) for the pump which provides a constant pressure and even distribution of water throughout the whole irrigation system.
With all these changes in place, the effects of hard water in the soils were eliminated along with future clogging of the new irrigation lines and emitters. These changes provided the efficient delivery of water and nutrients to all his crop improving the health of the plants and his bottom line.
Learn how we can solve your hard water problems.
