U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 Application Technology Research: Wooster, OH
 close



    Research

                    Research Projects
                                    Publications
                                    Collaborations
                                    News
                                    Software
                People

                    Staff Listing
                                    Careers


        


                    Departments
                        Agricultural Engineering
                                    Entomology
                                    Horticulture
                                    Plant Pathology
                                    IR-4 programSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Midwest Area Wooster, Ohio Application Technology Research Research Publications at this Location





- ARS National Programs
- Search for a scientific manuscript
- Search for a research project
- ARS Software
- Programs and Projects
- Collaborations
- Subjects of Investigation
- Publications

Title:   Author  item
                                            Zhu, Hepingitem
                                            ZONDAG, R - OSU EXTENSIONitem
                                            Krause, Charlesitem
                                            DEMALINE, T - WILLOWAY NURSERY
  Submitted to: Nursery Management and Production
                                    Publication Type: Popular Publication
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 4/10/2006
                                    Publication  Date: 6/15/2006
                                    Citation: Zhu, H., Zondag, R.H., Krause, C.R., Demaline, T. 2006. Achieve PIP Precision. Nursery Management and Production. p. 59-64.Interpretive Summary:
                                Technical Abstract: What will you expect if you can apply water and nutrition to your container-grown plants at the time when they need without waste while still maintain a proper nutrient level and water to air ratio?  Research by the USDA- ARS Application Technology Research Unit (ATRU) has started to provide answers to these questions.  A water and fertilizer monitoring system at a commercial nursery field was developed to study patterns that typical nurseries should use to irrigate plants.  Research showed that a large amount of water and nutrients lost through drainage with the current irrigation practices in pot-in-pot nursery production because of over applying water to container-grown plants during a short period of time.  The study showed that water either moves down the side of the pot due to medium shrinkage or moves through large pores and never has enough time to be absorbed into small pores.  Also, the current irrigation practices not only cause a large portion of water wasted but also cause a problem that the excess water carries nutrients and other chemical elements back to the water sources.  Results from the studies illustrate that only 3 minutes are required with a 3 gallon per hour spray stake to apply enough water for a #15 container tree during each irrigation cycle, and only twice irrigation cycles are required each day during the growing season.  However, growers previously applied irrigation to pot-in-pot production 20 to 30 minutes every day, which caused large amount of water lost through drainage.  Reducing the total amount of water lost through drainage could greatly reduce the total amount of N, P and K lost though drainage.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov