Site-Specific WaterBit MicroBlock Valve™ Irrigation for Orchards and Vineyards Opens Up Exciting Opportunities

Sebastian Braum, Ph.D., is WaterBit’s director of soil science and agronomy. He is writing a series of posts for our blog that delve into irrigation-related topics. In the piece below, he discusses deficit irrigation in wine grapes. Dr. Braum holds a doctorate in soil chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and he studied soil science, plant nutrition, agronomy and viticulture at U. of Hohenheim in Germany and Kansas State University. He has been a Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) for 20 years and a licensed California Pest Control Advisor (PCA) for 10 years. To read all of Sebastian’s “Agronomist’s Corner” posts, click here.

Site-Specific WaterBit MicroBlock Valve™ Irrigation for Orchards and Vineyards Opens Up Exciting Opportunities

Soil has a major influence on the growth, vigor and productivity of trees or vines growing in it. Agronomists and farmers recognize this and classify soils for their potential to grow crops. An orchard or vineyard often contains more than one type of soil, but even if only one “soil” makes up the whole area, it is far from uniform in its effects on plant growth. Soil variations that are invisible to the human observer can cause individual plants to have widely differing yields, often from one tree or vine to the next. Much like the climate or annual weather, the soil we are farming is part of the hand we are dealt – you can take it or leave it, but you can’t change it. 

Variability in Soil and Available Water

Water is a main driver for all plant growth since it is required for photosynthesis, nutrient uptake by the roots and transport to the aboveground plant parts, and transport of sugars, amino acids, and other compounds throughout the entire plant. Most of the site-specific plant response is therefore due to how the soil in that location interacts with water and plant roots. The size of the root zone and its available water storage are determined by many factors, such as soil texture, compaction, layering and textural changes, rocks, surface infiltration, hydraulic conductivity and drainage. These factors vary widely, even  over short distances in a soil, and we can’t change them. 

Advances in Irrigation Technology are Giving Growers More Control

What we can manage and change is the timing and amount of water we deliver to the soil-plant system. Until recently, irrigation was possible only on a large scale, at best splitting a vineyard or orchard into a few blocks that still contain many acres. This meant that each irrigation event was a compromise, hoping to meet the needs of as much of the block as possible, but always under-irrigating some areas and over-irrigating others. With WaterBit technology, it is now possible to manage irrigation in small time-intervals and at much smaller spatial scales, even down to fractions of an acre. Site-specific irrigation has become a reality with WaterBit’s MicroBlock Valve™ technology.

WaterBit MicroBlock Valve™ allows growers to:

• Create many irrigation management zones in existing orchards/vineyards, down to sub-acre sizes, and modify them if needed. We call these zones microblocks.
• Implement and modify distinct irrigation schedules for each microblock.
• Automate the execution of irrigation through scheduling or grower-defined soil-moisture thresholds that automatically trigger irrigation.
• Run, monitor and intervene in irrigation in real time from anywhere with internet access.

The WaterBit precision irrigation solution operates wirelessly and is powered by solar energy. Once installed, there is no  maintenance like changing batteries or repairing wirelines.