Addition Drip Line Improves Productivity and Competitiveness.doc - Windows Live

Addition Drip Line Improves Productivity and Competitivness.doc - Windows Live
Addition Drip Line Improves Productivity and Competitiveness

10 year veteran grower of early season watermelons Tani of Divjake is known by his fellow growers as a top producer. He is amongst the first to the market year after year. He is an innovator always looking for new ways to improve the productivity of his 1.2 hectare melon enterprise.
He was also the ideal candidate to carry out a demonstration of improved fertigation (fertilizer and irrigation) designed to improve productivity.
In the sandy soils of Divjake, melon growers use a single line of drip pipe to irrigate their crop. While the plant easily absorbs the fertilizer and water solution coming through the pipe only one side of the plant benefits. Research completed by the TCC Lushnje Station showed that by adding one additional line on the other side of the melon plant that it would result in better use of fertigation (cost reduction) increase yields, and earlier maturity. This technique was presented to lead melon growers during AAC’s monthly workshop series.
Tani along with two other growers were selected to demonstrate on 1000 square meters of their farm the results of the TCC work. AAC and the selected growers took observations during the critical stages of plant growth.
The results were truly amazing. The growers all agreed that the additional drip line produced larger, faster maturing fruits (by up to one week) than their control plot.
The second line also reduced the number of irrigations and the fertilizer was used more efficiently by being placed in the main feeder root zones.
According to Tani the additional cost of pipe is manual compared to the clear advantages of adding a second line.