09 September 2023, US: A carrot grower converted from overhead to drip tape for their carrots after positive results from some trials that were conducted. The purpose of the trials was to confirm that the desired lateral spread of water would occur to ensure an even strike of carrot seed would occur.
The grower uses a row configuration where a seed row is placed either side of the sub-surface installed drip tape. The tape product used is 510-15-170 (510-06-45) 0.25L (0.07gal)/hr emitter, was chosen to meet the lateral spread requirements and run length.
The carrot plant configuration where the crop is germinated and grown only using drip tape for irrigation. The narrow band of moisture is evident along the top of the bed that reaches to just outside the seed/plant row.
Reasons the grower chose Rivulis T-Tape with close emitter spacing included the following:
Less impact by wind compared to overhead irrigation.
Water use efficiency
Less inter-row weed management.
Evenness of harvested carrots
The evenness the grower was able to achieve with the carrot production using close emitter spaced drip tape.
The grower had to do some minor modifications to their precision seeder that enabled the drip tape also to be installed in a single operation at the time of seeding.
