Master – CNPLC – Irrigation Part I

  1. Learning objectives
    1. Define a garden’s irrigation needs: age of garden, plant material, irrigation system, and soil type
    2. Schedule irrigation to mimic typical seasonal rainfall
    3. Change irrigation as a garden matures
  2. Homework review
    1. Infiltration – Results? Discuss implications and how soils are tied to horticultural problems.
    2. What type of soils did you find?
    3. What was the infiltration rate?
  3. Discussion: Factors influencing irrigation needs
    1. Abiotic versus biotic factors
      1. Wind, sunlight, heat, soil texture, and exposure
      2. Plant water uptake, age of plants, canopy coverage, soil organic matter
  4. Discussion: Irrigate to mimic typical seasonal rainfall for a given area
    1. In southern California our typical rainfall averages around 15” a year, strive to achieve this level of precipitation every fall through spring
  5. Discussion: Delivery systems
    1. Drip versus overhead, benefits and drawbacks
  6. Discussion: How much to water
  7. Discussion: Change irrigation as a garden matures
  8. In-class exercises
    1. Evaluate the past season’s rainfall and how it affected irrigation strategies
      1. What was the total rainfall during the past rainy season?
  9. Resources
    1. Manufactures
      1. Rainbird
      2. Hunter Industries
      3. Netafimusa
    1. Local/Online Suppliers
      1. Ewing Irrigation & Landscape Supply
      2. Landscape Warehouse Irrigation Supplies & Nursery
      3. Aqua-Flo Supply
      4. DripWorks
      5. The Drip Store
    1. Tutorials/Guides
      1. Hunter Drip Irrigation Design & Installation Guide
      2. Landscape Watering by The Numbers
      3. The River Project.org: Water Resources Page
      4. Tree of Life Nursery: Watering Native Plants
      5. WUCOLS Landscape Water-Use Planning Tool (English)
      6. SoCal Water$mart Residential Rebates (English)

      7. SoCal Water$mart Residential Rebates (Spanish)

  10. Resources
    1. Evaluate a client’s irrigation system
      1. What make and model do they utilize
      2. Using the manufactures brochures and spec sheets, calculate how long it would take to irrigate 1.5” with the system they have
      3. What would your irrigation schedule look like for the first year?
  11. Homework
    1. Download the “Workshop-1-Data_Sheet” file from the Materials tab
    2. Evaluate a client’s irrigation system
    3. What make and model do they utilize
    4. Using the manufactures brochures and spec sheets, calculate how long it would take to irrigate 1.5” with the system they have
    5. What would your irrigation schedule look like for the first year?

Upload homework to Assignment section below before next class. Allowed file types are pdf, doc, jpg or png.

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