Article by Arno Engels - Hortipoint, De Boomkwekerij
Lodders Boomkwekerijen is launching a large-scale trial of drip irrigation on beds planted with forest and hedge plants.
The company in Wernhout is laying a total of 40 km of drip hoses on beds containing two-year-old transplanted seedlings (Fagus sylvatica) that need to remain in place for one more year, covering 3.5 ha. Last week, the first hoses were laid—two per four-row bed. “We’ve now laid more than half of them,” Marc Lodders said on Monday; he plans to start drip irrigation later this week. “It’s the perfect time to see if it works,” he said, referring to the forecast of warm weather.
A Sustainable Solution to the Water Problem
The irrigation technology comes from GoTech in Zundert; the hoses are actually made of thin tape, which is also used by strawberry growers in the region, for example. At Lodders, the tape is connected to supply hoses and the existing underground drainage system. With drip irrigation, the grower aims to “take the first step toward a sustainable solution to the water problem.”
So far, Lodders has been using reels and sprinklers for irrigation. A few years ago, he was the first in the region to start using a simple method to retain water longer: by placing planks in ditches. That idea led to the “Drempel tegen Droogte” (Barrier Against Drought) initiative by the Brabantse Delta Water Board.
The use of drip irrigation is growing rapidly in the tree nursery industry; read a detailed article on this topic in the digital magazine of De Boomkwekerij. Lodders is deliberately starting with two-year-old plants. “I think drip irrigation is still quite expensive for one-year-old plants because the tape can’t be reused.”
