September/October 2024 - 7

IRRIGATION AND WATER MANAGEMENT
self-assessments of their farming
operations, and irrigation is a big
part of that. Currently, 425,000 acres
have been assessed, which represents
approximately one third of all
California acreage.
" Micro-irrigation, between drip and
micro-sprinkler, we find 81% of growers
use one of the two, " said Tom Devol, the
board's senior manager, field outreach
and education. " Water scarcity has been
an integral part of tree nut production
for a long time and most tree nut
growers are pretty aggressive about how
they are managing water, and the type of
irrigation is a big part of that. "
There are several components when
it comes to monitoring for irrigation
needs. Tree-base sensors, starting with
the pressure chamber, have been used
for many years to monitor stress at the
tree level.
" Understanding the tree stress is
a big part of this all, and that's done
with pressure chambers or plant-stress
sensors that measure the actual stress
of the tree, " Devol said. " Weather
monitoring - ET monitoring - is
also heavily used in the industry, with
almost 90% of growers looking at this
to help them understand what they
need to replace. "
Soil moisture monitoring is the
third important leg as it helps
almond growers determine if they've
effectively gotten the water back into
the ground.
" It is common for growers to
leverage all three of these tools, " Devol
said. " Most growers also use some sort
of software-based scheduling tool to
help them schedule out irrigation. "
Regulatory requirements
The Regional Water Quality
Control Board sets standards for
nutrient management, including
the amount of natural or synthetic
fertilizers that can be applied
to a field. That helps prevent
overfertilization, which could leach
to groundwater or runoff from a field
into other lands or waterways.
Singh added that growers are
required to report the amount of
nitrogen fertilizer applications to
water coalitions such as Kings River
in the valley.
" They also need to report the
amount of nitrogen in the irrigation
water and therefore growers have
to get their water tested annually, "
he said. " This is done by the growers
themselves or their CCA. "
Looking ahead, Singh believes that
having more data and research on
remote sensing and satellite imagery
will help growers understand the
issues and management of water
quality better and therefore will result
in greater success by almond growers
concerning water management.
A graduate of the University of
Miami, Keith Loria is an award-winning
journalist who has been writing for
almost 20 years. View his recent writing
at keithloria.contently.com.
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For more information, visit:
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NATIONALNUTGROWER.COM 7
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September/October 2024

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