Prepare a comprehensive property development and business plan, preferably with professional help, before you buy land and start your enterprise. Don t plan a development that is too large or buy expensive land that overcommits your available funds. A reliable supply of good quality water for irrigation is essential to grow high quality marketable flowers and foliage. You will not get a good crop if you do not monitor soil moisture levels to determine how much water is needed in addition to that provided by rain. Several soil moisture-monitoring devices are available, but evaporation pans and tensiometers are most commonly used on wildflower farms.
Trickle irrigation is the most popular watering system.
Overhead irrigation may predispose plants to foliage diseases. Water sources may include bores, rivers and on-farm dams. Always manage your runoff water to prevent soil erosion on your own and neighbouring properties. The amount of water needed will depend on location, type of crop grown and area, annual rainfall, rainfall distribution, evaporation and evapotranspiration of the crop. The irrigation requirement for 2000 rice flowers over a full year, in addition to incident rainfall, is 4 megalitres of water per hectare.