Water is an essential component of horticulture and agriculture whether it is used for irrigating field-scale vegetables, nursery stock, flowers or fruit. Where water contains high degrees of calcium, magnesium and sodium, it can cause nutrient deficiency in plants and crops resulting in stunted growth and poor yields. Calcium also blocks irrigation systems and boilers in heated greenhouses, which become scaled-up resulting in frequent maintenance and increasing fuel costs. Scalewatcher North America, manufacturers of the original, patented and award-winning computerized electronic water-conditioner, Scalewatcher®, has a range of units that will combat the effects of hard water in horticulture and agriculture.
Tests carried out in a greenhouse in L.J.J. Ammerlaan in the Netherlands, by the Scientific Mediation and Consultation Bureau, found that the harvest of green peppers fed with water treated using the Scalewatcher system provided a significantly higher yield than those fed with non-treated water. In addition, as the crops matured early, the growers were able to get their yield to market early providing them with a financial and marketing advantage.
Scalewatcher breaks the calcium barrier, which occurs naturally about an inch and a half below ground level. The calcium barrier prevents water penetrating deep into the soil and causes surface moisture to quickly evaporate resulting in reduced plant growth and wasted water. When the Scalewatcher system is fitted, plants grow healthier and more robust as their roots are able to penetrate deeper into the moisture rich soil.
Nurseries frequently use steam boilers to heat greenhouses. In the Netherlands, Den Brabender nursery uses a Crone steam boiler to heat its greenhouse. Make-up water, drawn from local ditches has a high mineral content, which cause the boiler to regularly scale-up necessitating frequent acid cleaning and repair resulting in US$2,500 on maintenance. Every three years the boilers pipes needed renewing and heat wastage from a build up of scale cost the nursery an additional US$11,000 in additional gas consumption. Within 12 months of Scalewatcher being installed the boiler was scale free and the nursery found its gas consumption had dropped by 20%.
Another instance of Scalewatcher helping horticulture occurred in Greece, where coastal farmers are finding that over consumption of bore hole water to feed orange trees had resulted in subterranean channels partially filled with sea water. This had resulted in tree roots becoming encrusted with calcium, causing the trees to appear burnt and produce poor quality and smaller crops of fruit. Following installation of Scalewatcher the trees remained healthy, produced new branches and leaves as well as abundant and quality fruit.
Therefore Scalewatcher will:
Lower salt levels in soil
Improve plant and crop growth
Help provide better wetting action
Drip irrigation systems stay clean
Reduce irrigation water usage 20 – 30%
Reduced effect of salt from well or sea water
Water penetrates soil better
Reduce the need for fertilizers
Stop scale/corrosion in water systems
Help produce greater yields
In addition Scalewatcher will inhibit algae growth, stop salt encrustation and save on fuel.
A fit and forget system Scalewatcher is easy to install and requires no plumbing, maintenance or chemicals. Using modern, integrated circuitry the Scalewatcher emits an electronically applied force field, induced by a coil wrapped around the outside of the pipe work, which keeps the minerals in suspension and thus prevents limescale forming. The unit can be attached to all types of pipework material, regardless of size.
Scalewatcher models are based on continuous research and over 20 years experience and expertise as market leaders in electronic scale control with countless units sold worldwide. The patented Scalewatcher systems start at $248.00 USD and are capable of treating pipe sizes from one to 80 inches. All Scalewatcher systems come with a full performance guarantee and include free shipping throughout North America
“In 1993, Sid Abma installed a new 350 HP boiler along with his SRU stack recovery condenser, to heat a section of our greenhouses in Bellingham, Washington. While the boiler requires yearly service and maintenance, the condenser requires no maintenance. It just sits on the floor next to the boiler and gives us free heat.Sid was able to pipe the condenser in a way that takes maximum advantage of its capabilities. It provides floor heating for an entire 26,000 square foot zone. Without this unit, that heat...
oil fired boiler price in South Africa
oil fired boiler is used in South Africa for heating in hospital ,the housing estates, hotel ,school, vegetable greenhouse. Hot water boiler price in South Africa is decided by burner , auxiliary engines allocated and the pressure of boiler body. If all the auxiliary engines are allocated , the price will be relative higher than a hot water boiler without the auxiliary engines such as economizer, hydro treater, etc. Take burn as a example , a good burner of course will...
A field experiment was conducted to study the influence of coffee effluent irrigation on performance of established robusta coffee, nutrient contribution and microbial activities in the soil. The results revealed that the field irrigated with coffee effluent from aerobic tank having COD of 1009 ppm, did not affect the yield of clean coffee (1309 kg ha-1) and it was on par with the plots irrigated with pond water (1310 kg ha-1).Keywords: coffee effluent, nutrients, COD, chemical oxygen demand, microbial population,...
With water shortages emerging as a constraint on food production growth, the world needs an effort to raise water productivity similar to the one that nearly tripled land productivity during the last half of the twentieth century. Worldwide, average irrigation water productivity is now roughly 1 kilogram of grain per ton of water used. Since it takes 1,000 tons of water to produce 1 ton of grain, it is not surprising that 70 percent of world water use is devoted to irrigation. Thus, raising irrigation efficiency...
Saving Energy is easier than you think!The average American generates about 19-20 tons of carbon dioxide each year. Simple activities such as watching television, sending an email message, cooking and making a phone call produce carbon emissions, but there are many simple and inexpensive ways to reduce your carbon emissions ( and your energy costs) beginning today.According to Evan Mills, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Residential energy use generates approximately 21% of total U.S. greenhous...
The applicability of two vulnerability assessment methods in evaluating the impact of agricultural activities on groundwater quality, is tested in two areas in the south of Portugal with modest results. Intensive citri- and horticulture require large amounts of fertiliser and water supplied by irrigation, which induces groundwater salinisation and contamination by nitrates. The degree of contamination varies highly within and between the study areas and is related to hydrogeological factors as well as intensity...
An air survey of jute fields for two seasons in West Bengal, India, revealed that the total colony forming units (CFUs) varied with time, showing peaks (231 and 483 CFUs, respectively) during harvesting of the crop. The effect of temperature as well as relative humidity is probably not so significant. However, the total rainfall does count. The CFUs are inversely proportional to the total rainfall. In the survey conducted, it was found that the rainfall of 1346.3 mm and 947.1 mm, during the two seasons corresponded...
Untitled Document
As the annual onslaught
of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) blooms continues to plague fresh water lakes
and reservoirs, the use of copper sulfate to control the problem has become dubious.
After 50 years of pouring innumerable tons of copper into lakes and reservoirs,
the use of this algaecide has increased resistance and resulted in consequential
problems that require more expensive treatment and threaten marine habitats throughout
the world.Although
naturally present in...
Abstract
A long-term environmental monitoring program is providing hydrologic data that demonstrates poplar trees are influencing groundwater flow at the J-Field site, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. Advanced data collection and analyses techniques have enabled researchers to construct a water budget for the study area and to estimate the amount of groundwater the trees are transpiring on a daily and annual basis. During the growing season, groundwater flow is influenced by the transpiration activities of the...
From California to New Jersey, environmentalists and politicians are rounding on emissions trading programmes. David Biello reports
Even as the Bush administration continues to build support for market mechanisms to solve air pollution issues – under his Clear Skies initiative – emissions trading schemes from California to New Jersey are under attack from environmentalists, citizen advocacy groups and state governments.
In New York State, Governor George Pataki is continuing a legal battle over the trading of...
Executive Summary
1. Description
This report presents the findings of research undertaken by WRc, under contract to the Waste andResources Action Programme (WRAP). The research analysed the market potential for low grade composted materials in the UK, taking the risks associated with their use in different applications into account. It also assessed the viability of introducing standards for such products.
2. Approach
During the project, it became clear that differentiating between low and high grade feedstocks...
The Presidio is part of California’s Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the national park system. As an urban park on the northern edge of San Francisco, there are many challenges to be met in the quest to be a model of sustainability. An innovative composting program is becoming one way to help meet the park’s goals.
Nearing the close of its second year, this program is well on its way to meeting these challenges with 40 percent of the available organics now composted. Feedstocks of manure, grass clippings,...
Understanding Compost Tea
COMPOST TEA describes many different preparations made using compost as a starting material and producing a liquid extract or in some cases a “liquid version” of the original compost. There are many home-designed pieces of equipment and some commercially available equipment made to produce compost tea. New ideas abound on how to fabricate the better tea-maker and different designs are tried each year with efforts to improve efficiency and decrease costs.
Additionally, there are...
“We know there are limiting factors in this sector,” acknowledges Hans Van Dusen, who is on the contract implementation staff for Seattle Public Utilities. “Transient populations as well as space in downtown and older buildings are problematic, but multifamily recycling has emerged as a priority for the city.” Seattle has taken a number of steps to make its program more user friendly and flexible in hopes of increasing the number of participating buildings.
Until now, owners or managers had to call the city to...
How To Succeed In Bagging While Really Trying
Your compost and mulch are producing great results, your customer base is growing, and you’ve decided to take the next step and put some of your profits into a bagging operation. Not so fast! Yes, if done right and marketed well, bagged products can spread your company’s name far and wide. They can provide another revenue stream and point customers toward larger purchases of bulk material. But before you design a nifty logo and buy a state-of-the-art system, it’s...
Maximizing Multifamily Recycling
The city of Seattle, Washington recently introduced major changes to its recycling program, affecting the collection of residential recyclables and yard trimmings. In April, the city added rigid plastic containers of all resins (except #6), along with aseptic juice boxes, polycoated milk cartons and plastic bags. All single and multifamily collection changed to a commingled system (with an insert for glass), eliminating the previous source separated programs. Weekly and monthly...
Maximizing Compostables At The Olympics
THE GOVERNMENT of New South Wales, Australia passed the Waste Minimization and Management Act in 1995, setting a reduction target of 60 percent. One indicator of how much commitment and infrastructure are available to reach this goal will be the success of the overall organics recycling achievements at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney (see “Olympian Effort To Use Recycled Organics,” June, 2000). Events for the games will take place during September and October,...
The Rockland County (New York) Cocomposting Facility began operations in February, 1999, processing biosolids from the five publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) in the county. The Rockland County Solid Waste Management Authority (RCSWMA) owns the facility, but contracted with Waste Management of New York to design, build and operate (DBO) the 110 wet tons/day agitated bin composting facility located in Hilburn. From the earliest stages of development,
RCSWMA has focused on odor control provisions for the...
Guidelines
Explain how and why your company emits greenhouse gases from heating your buildings, to distributing your products, to specialist process emissions.
Help you as a business to play your part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, whether you do that on a voluntary basis or in response to regulatory requirements, emissions trading or taxation, by setting targets for improvement and reporting publicly on progress.
Help you contribute to a key element of the Government`s Sustainable Development...
Abstract
Rice hulls are a well known waste material in all rice growing countries. This presentation will showcase a remarkable patented development that uses rice hulls to manufacture a Hollow Core Load Bearing building panel that can be used to build cheaper housing. The Bio-Bond process makes use of a combination of the unique properties of rice hulls and a breakthrough in extrusion technology to manufacture a valuable building material. The panel exhibits excellent load bearing capability, sound absorption,...
In Lower Austria 69 agricultural composting plants are in operation in addition to municipal and commercial composting plants. The agricultural composting plants process separately collected organic household waste as contractual partners for the neighbouring municipalities. The compost produced is used to a large extent on the agricultural fields of the plants` owners. In order to improve the compost quality and to open up new markets for biowaste compost the EU project Art. 8 n° AU-95-0256 was initiated. In the...
Imagine being in charge of a chemical company. One day a fire breaks out, and an employee, designated as a first responder, is killed fighting the blaze. Then OSHA investigators discover that the man died primarily because both his training and his equipment were inadequate. This scenario is why CPL 2-2.59A should put anyone who runs a HAZMAT facility into a state of introspection. These employers need to ask themselves: `When was the last time that our Emergency Response Plan was brought up to date? Do our...
Biofilters are the odor control system of choice at composting facilities. Despite similar capital costs, the biofilters are generally less costly to operate than chemical scrubbers. The key to keeping operating costs in check, however, is to get the maximum use out of the biofilter media, thus avoiding the time and money needed to do media replacements.
Allen Boyette, senior engineer and manager of the Cary, North Carolina office of E&A Environmental Consultants, Inc., tackled the topic, “Building Longevity...
Losses due to soilborne diseases on some greenhouse, nursery and vegetable crops can amount to thousands of dollars per acre annually. Until the 1930s, organic amendments — consisting of animal and green manures, coupled with crop rotation — were principal methods of control. But these approaches were largely abandoned for reasons of cost and inconvenience after commercial fertilizers and the broad spectrum soil fumigant methyl bromide (MB) became available. Applied on a yearly basis on some crops, this fumigant...
Cost-efficient solution for smell emission reduction
The enormous waste quantities that are produced day by day are one of the most difficult problems for the economy as such, for cities and communities and for private households. Storage capacities for waste are scarce everywhere. Therefore solutions of all kinds that reduce waste quantities or recycle waste materials to be reused in the material cycle are top priority for all concerned. For some time now, compost production has been a widely used approach to...
Abstract
Restriction of available water observed in the last years in arid or semiarid areas forces the planners to consider any source of water for irrigation. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the suitability of wastewater produced by the treatment plant of the city of Larissa, Central Greece for irrigation of corn. With a three year`s field experiment it was shown that wastewater significantly increased corn yield and may substitute considerable quantities of mineral fertilizers. Increase in corn...
Abstract
The study focused on the contributions of GO`s and NGO`s toward the development, transfer and commercialization of some biomass based recycling technologies now being adopted and/or tested in the countryside. Cognizant of the potential and abundance of indigenous bioresources, GO`s and NGO`s have developed a wide variety of technologies ranging from a simple household gadget like improved biomass cookstove to more sophisticated agro-industrial machines e.g. rice hull fired bakery oven, biomass pyrolyzer...
Case Study
Name of company: Neumarkter LammsbräuSector: BreweryNumber of employees: 80Country: Germany
AbstractNeumarkter Lammsbräu is an 80-employee brewery located in Bavaria, a German region which has a strong tradition for beer. At the beginning of the 1970s, agriculture in the region became increasingly intensive. The quality of beer was being sacrificed for quick and high returns on sales. Neumarkter Lammsbräu wanted to safeguard the quality of its products and develop a strategy for success. The company...
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