The irrigation requirement for 2000 rice flowers over a full year, in addition to incident rainfall, is 4 megalitres of water per hectare. Mean annual rainfall at Toowoomba over the past 100 years is 950 mm. Advice on dam construction, irrigation systems and site specific information is available from the Queensland Department of Natural Resources. Water quality Water quality cannot be determined by taste. Obtain a chemical test to see if it is suitable for irrigating wildflowers before you plant your crop.
Plants are sensitive to salt levels in the water.
Table 1 gives a general indication of the tolerance of plants to salinity. A list of Australian native species tolerant of saline soils can be found in the Australian Plant Study Group publication Grow What Where. Modified from R.J. Shaw, Submission to the Australian Society of Soil Science Salinity Terminology Committee , Unpublished Internal Report, Agricultural Chemistry Branch, DPI, 1982. Follow these rules of thumb. Bore water is generally considered free of plant pathogens but can have a high salt content.