We’re not talking about the candy kind. We’re talking about the sudden bursting of a soaker hose in the field or hoop house kind. Sometimes you’ll get one and not even know about it for a day. That’s a lot of water we’re talking about.
Using water wisely is top-of-mind for all farmers. The importance of getting water usage right increases with every season, due to reasons like more frequent droughts, harsher temperatures, and the costs involved in supplementing this natural resource with irrigation. A few months back we shared with you our excitement over having finally(!) accomplished our second agricultural well. A second well is vital if your first one is out for service. Trenches were dug and electrical lines laid. It takes a lot of work to ensure crops have the water they need. We then use soaker hoses to distribute water to the plant base, at the soil, using less of this precious resource than if watered overhead. Watering at the base of the plants also helps prevent disease by keeping the leaves dry. We’re very grateful to the inventors of soaker hoses. They made their patented debut in the 1960s and have been a mainstay to farmers and gardeners ever since. Then the gushers came.
Gushers are created when your soaker hose is either inadvertently hit with a shovel or rake when tending the plants, or pulling out a row to plant a new crop, by mice (where are those cats?), or when the material becomes thin and worn by the sun and balloons out. Suddenly, you have a gusher on your hands, or, rather, on your plants. It happens more than I’d care to count, so we are giving overhead watering a trial run on some areas of the farm. I noticed this past weekend some of the plants being watered overhead had the first signs of fungus. Drat! Fungus. We’ll just have to see what happens and keep at the drawing board.
Drop us a line to let us know of your gusher woes @hawkandsparrowflowers. Or come by our flower shop here on the farm Thursdays and Fridays, anytime from 1 to 5. It’d be sweet to see you.
Stay cool out there,
Lis & Tim
