Get your irrigation system ready for the challenges of summer. We spoke to JH Potgieter, one of our experienced irrigation designers, about how plant water needs change during the hotter months — and how smart irrigation planning can make all the difference.
Irrigation becomes a little more challenging during the warmer months. Fortunately, we work with the best of the best. We spoke to one of our irrigation designers in Caledon, JH Potgieter, about how irrigation systems need to adapt during summer.
According to JH, a plant’s water requirement or usage increases the more challenging or hotter the growing environment becomes. “This is the fundamental principle we need to design our irrigation systems around — ensuring that we can replace the water lost at a sufficient rate,” he explains.
Plants absorb water from the soil profile and lose it again through their stomata via the process of transpiration. “Only around 10% or less of the water absorbed is retained in the plant tissue. Nearly all of it is lost to help cool the plant down,” says JH.
He explains that the rate of transpiration is high when evaporation levels are high — typically under dry, hot, and windy conditions — and lower in cooler, more humid conditions. “The amount of water absorbed and lost through transpiration therefore determines the plant’s water requirement,” says JH.
He adds that a plant’s actual water requirement is influenced not only by prevailing weather conditions, but also by factors such as the type of plant, its age, health, nutritional status, and how its stomata open and close in response to light and internal water shortages.
The rate at which water evaporation occurs depends on:
- Humidity
- Temperature
- Radiation
- Air movement
- Altitude above sea level
