Cultivate20 Virtual: Train Your Team to Water Properly

Train Your Team
to Water
Properly
Will Healy
Senior Technical & Research Manager
Ball Horticultural Company

Copyright 2020 Ball Horticultural Company
A Grower’s Job is to Dry
Plants to the Correct Moisture
Training Issue
Growers with
nothing to do Water!
Pencil Watering ->
Plan What to Do Next Day

Dr Will, Dr Will
Help me please - I suffer from…..
PWS!*
Paranoid Watering Syndrome
Pay to
Water

Fish grow in Water
Roots grow in Air

Water Knowledge
Pyramid
When to Water-How Dry?
How Much to Water
Where to Water
Plant Demand
Language of Watering W1-W5
ClimateQualitative
aka
Opinion based
Quantitative
aka
Data based

Does Soil Breath?
Water in-Air out
Water out-Air in
What is this??
What are you trying to do??

Does Soil Breath?
Water in-Air out
Water out-Air in
What is this??
What are you trying to do??
5 3 1

‘Tools of the Trade’
0.4-1 GPM
0.94-1.6 GPM
1.6-3.2 GPM

0.4-1 GPM
0.94-1.6 GPM
1.6-3.2 GPM

Ball Horticultural Company
Watering
Technique
Vol*speed = Qty/cell
3 5-33-5 5

Starts with Your Water Tunnel
Uniformly add water to start germination process
 Pressure & gpm per nozzle
 Number of nozzles
 N1 = glue seed or settle URC
 N2 = moisture around seed or URC-soil contact
 N3+ = moisture in soil

Silly 100 gm Does Make
a Difference!

Watering vs Flooding
 Day 0-5 key period
 Irrigation speed
 ‘Grit’ is critical

Water by Weight
Better plotting, more attention
Less stretched plants (also fertilizer)
Calculation day and night losses
Record weight after watering

Pyramid Level 4
Where to Water
3-Dimensional Space!
Edge
Middle
Depth
W2-3 W5-2 W3-5W4-5
Highly
Branched
Root System
Top
Horizontal
Root System
Water
Root
System
Vertical
Root
System

Watering Success
 Saturate to a level 4 (bottom drip)
 Dry to a level 2
Train your watering pattern to a 4-2
 It’s the drying that promotes rooting
 Water to get to the next dry point
 Draw the roots to the bottom of the container.

Drying out a cell
 Drying out a cell is due to evaporation of the
water from the soil
 Water loss is sigmoidal over time
 Incremental loss is slowest at level 5 & 1
 Incremental loss is linear with time at level 4-2
 If water loss is 200-300 g per day then the loss
of 800 g (level 42) will take 2-4 days.

What drives water loss
from the container?
Night Water Loss
 200+ gm – Rapid drying
 100-200 gm – Ideal
 50-100 gm – Too wet issues
 < 50 gm – Tip abortion
A
B
 ET
1. Evaporation
2. Transpiration
 Change in tray weight will predict the ET rate
 Weigh the same container in afternoon & morning.
 Night ET = afternoon-morning
 Day ET = morning-afternoon

Managing Water Loss
 How much water (weight) is lost each day?
 How much water (weight) is lost each night?
 How much water weight must I add to reach the
target weight tomorrow?
 How much water weight must I add to get water
to the bottom of the cell or pot?
 It’s not the how wet or dry but how long does it
take to get to the next watering time

Water Knowledge
Pyramid
When to Water-How Dry?
How Much to Water
Where to Water
Plant Demand
Language of Watering W1-W5
Climate
Qualitative &
Quantitative
Set Your
Dry Target
Set Your
Wet Target
Drive
the Roots
Down
VPD
Drives
Water Loss Each Stage
Right Target

More Resources:
View the full slideshow (and many more) at: https://www.slideshare.net/bcalkins
STEM Podcast: The Language of Watering
Part One - https://stempodcast.podbean.com/e/the-language-of-watering/
STEM Podcast: The Language of Watering
Part Two - https://stempodcast.podbean.com/e/watering-the-rest-of-the-story/
Ball Seed LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ball-seed-co
Greenhouse Tech Team Closed Group: Search Greenhouse Tech Team on Facebook Groups

Presentations are intended for educational purposes only and do not replace independent
professional judgement. Statements of fact and opinion expressed are those of the presenters
individually and, unless expressly stated to the contrary, are not the opinion or position of
AmericanHort, its cosponsors, or its committees. AmericanHort does not endorse or approve,
and assumes no responsibility for the content, accuracy or completeness of the information
presented. Attendees should note that sessions are recorded and may be published in various
media, including print, audio and video formats without further notice.
This presentation and its contents are provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind,
either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of
merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or non-infringement.
Presentation Disclaimer
This work may not be reproduced, modified, publicly displayed or
distributed in any form by any means without express written permission
of AmericanHort and the presenter.
Do not copy, post or distribute

Cultivate20 Virtual: Train Your Team to Water Properly

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