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Crop irrigation is an integral part of growing vegetables. This is because 80-95% of any
vegetable is water!
A plant can suffer stress from lack of water as quickly as 3 days after the most recent rain. In
places like the high plains where rain can be sporadic or even sparse, crop irrigation has become
quite widespread.
About 39% of all fresh water used in the U.S. Goes to water farm crops. Irrigation allows the
farmer to plan for regular moisture on his crop, which encourages maturity and good yields.
The Original Crop Irrigation - A Bucket
The earliest method of delivering water to needy plants was a simple bucket system. A man (or
woman) carried a bucket full of water to a plant and poured it over the top. Crop irrigation was
born!
Flood Irrigation
Of course, as the number of plants grew, a more efficient way of providing moisture was needed.
Necessity provided a technique called "flood irrigation," which is simply allowing a large
amount of water to flow into a field. Farmers perfected this method of delivering water to plants
by enclosing the field with a sort of mini "dike," keeping the water inside the field so that it
could soak into the ground.
Some farmers also used fields with a slight slope, which allowed the water to flow downward
toward the edges of the field.
This was an improvement over the bucket system, but it was highly inefficient since much
moisture was lost to evaporation, and often there were plants who did not receive any water
because they were not in line of the flood.
Furrow Irrigation
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The next crop irrigation innovation was furrow irrigation, where large pipes with holes were laid
perpendicular to the rows of crops. The pipes were connected end-to-end like a long snake. A
well or other water source was connected to one end of the pipe "snake," and water was directed
through the pipe.
The water then flowed out of the holes and into the furrows between the crop rows. This new
technique reduced evaporation by about 25%, and provided an improvement to then current crop
irrigation practices.
Center Pivot Irrigation
Many of us are familiar with center pivot irrigation, although we may not have realized it.
Anyone who has flown over the Heartland and noticed large green circles on the ground has
witnessed center pivots at work.
Center pivots work just like your sprinkler system at home. The water source is in the center of
the field, (picture your garden faucet), and a large pipe (like your garden hose) extends toward
the ends of the field. The pipe either has sprinkler heads that spray water over the plants, or it has
sprinkler heads that hang down close to the plants, directing water on them.
The center pivot also has motors that propel the sprinkler heads in a circle around the field,
providing just the correct amount of water needed for each crop.
Benefits with this type of crop irrigation include much less moisture lost to evaporation, and
much less energy needed to move the water around the field. Also, it is much easier to regulate
the amount of water directed to each plant, so that no crop gets too much or too little moisture.
Drip and Water Reel Irrigation
Drip irrigation has also been developed for the needs of a small scale farm or homeowner. This is
where small hoses with nozzles are directed to each individual plant. This type of irrigation is