It’s Summer Time! Time to Water!

It is time to keep an eye on your water sources and systems. This time of the year when things go wrong with your wells, pumps, and other parts of your water system, it’s always a top priority emergency. It’s wise to do annual maintenance on all the different parts of your water system. It is also important to do regular testing of your irrigation water. Many growers ask ‘How often should I test it?’ I would lean to doing it every 2-3 years unless you’ve had one of the following changes to your system. 

• A new well is put in, whether it be drawing the water from the same or a different depth than your older well 
• You’ve installed a new reservoir or dug a new pond to store irrigation water in
• You’ve installed a new water treatment, acidification, or injection system 
• If any new well activity has been done adjacent to your growing area.
• Any changes in the surface water coming onto your property.

If any of the above have occurred, I would test your water sources every year until you see a consistent trend in your results. Then, when you feel confident that it’s not changing, you can go back to a 2-3 year testing cycle

Danny Dudoich, Grower Specialist