Nothing will survive

Article taken from South East Farmer, August 2017.

Alongside the launch of NIAB-EMR's WET centre various talks on irrigation and AHDB endorsed research on reducing usage and losses, much of Fruit Focus was centred on the importance of an often-overlooked resource, water.

""Water really does get missed and is not thought of enough," says Paul Walsh, product manager at EndoSan. ""Growers think of the coir, the nutrients, the fertilisers and the irrigation systems but forget the one key resource which is potentially causing the biggest problems for them.""

The key to making water your primary focus is ensuring that it is clean and consistently supplied. Regardless of the water source, any irrigation system will contain bacteria. Over time, depending on temperatures and flor rates, bacteria will clump together and form a biofilm.

""The biofilm in your irrigation system will provide food and protection helping bacteria to breed," explains Mr Walsh, ""Where you have a small issue entering via the water source, your system allows bacteria to populate into millions, which then becomes a significant issue.""

Eventually, biofilm will proliferate, break off and form new colonies in different parts of the irrigation system. This often causes multiple blockages at the end of the drippers and prevents the plants from receiving essential water.

""What you find on a long irrigation line is healthy plants and then all of a sudden you will have a plant that just dies," said Mr Walsh. ""This is because nothing is coming through the drip line; it's blocked by the biofilm and your plant is not receiving the water it needs.""

Cleaning irrigation water is an issue which growers have in the past struggled to cope with. Agrovista believes it has found the solution through its partnership with EndoSan. An environmentally sound disinfectant water treatment, based on hydrogen peroxide, making it an essentially highly oxygenated water.

""You can describe EndoSan's killing system as a penny in a glass of coke," explained Mr Walsh. ""That fizzing action, that oxidisation, is what EndoSan does as soon as it hits. Nothing will survive; bacteria, viruses, fungi, you name it, it's a broad-spectrum disinfectant. It physically destroys biofilm blockages and blasts small amounts through the drippers.""

After it has done its job, the product degrades into water and oxygen and this returning back to the root system has also provides to have beneficial effects on root growth and root health.

While there are other products on the market designed to clean irrigation systems EndoSan has been created with growers in mind. ""It's the simplicity of having just one tank," explained David Taylor, fruit agronomist at Agrovista. ""The drum just goes into the bottom of the dosing system and that's it.""

Growers don't need to think about the dosage either. ""There is no pre-mixing required, it's all done for you and because EndoSan will dose it at the same rate from start to finish you know it will reach and clean every corner.""

With the investment costs of irrigation systems in their thousands, growers can't afford to have a system not working properly. ""Uniformity is key," said Mr Taylor. ""We have to make sure every square meter of the system is consistent. You can't have one corner of the field not irrigated. It all goes back to cost and having to ensure that every dripper works the same.""

Unlike other chemicals, there is no risk of high initial dosages corroding pipework and, over time, it is believed EndoSan will drastically reduce irrigation maintenance and replacement costs across pipes and drippers. ""As well as increasing the lifespan of irrigation systems and saving money on replacement," said Mr Taylor. ""It will also reduce labour costs as you will not need to do an end of season flush or clean. It can stay in the system all year.""

""We are trying to drive water quality standards for the industry," claims Mr Walsh. ""Ultimately, clean water is clear profit. You will increase your revenue across the board from reducing crop losses, to potentially better yields, and saving on maintenance costs of irrigation systems.""