Water Mixing

The irrigation water available to us can be of very different quality, as well as the needs of the different species that we may have on our golf courses or other sports facilities. In other words, we may require better water for Agrostis greens and worse for Bermuda fairways, or due to reseeding on Bermuda football pitches, the quality needs may vary seasonally, requiring better quality for reseeding Ryegrass in autumn and worse quality when the transition to Bermuda takes place in spring-summer. It is therefore important to know the most optimal way to reseed. water mixtures.

Parameter Salinity in irrigation water (dS/m)

—————–               0  —-  2 —–  4  —-  8  —-  12  —- 16 — 20 —  24

% Germination 96.5 95.5 95.5 92.5 88.0 78.0 67.0 67.0 53.0 20.0

Days to germination 6.21 6.14 6.56 7.68 8.82 10.79 10.61 11.71

Germination of Rye grass according to salinity in irrigation water, Iiker Nizam, 2011.

Irrigation water mixtures have to take into account two aspects, such as the salt content and chemical speciation, since the salt content will have an influence on the tolerance that the different varieties may present and the chemical speciation on the possible formation of lime scale in the irrigation facilities or different pH values that the irrigation water may reach. For this purpose, water engineering software can be used to optimise the mixture as desired.

The salt content of the water mixture is the average result of the weights of each water and the percentage of each one, so if we mix two types of water A y B in a 30% and 70% respectively the result is easy to calculate:

A. 2ppm

B. 0.5ppm

[0.3 x a (ppm water A) + 0.7 x b (ppm water B)]/2= [(0.3 x 2) + (0.7 x b)]/2= 0.6 + 0.35= [(0.3 x 2) + (0.7 x b)]/2= 0.6 + 0.35= [(0.6 x 0.35) 0.95 ppm shall be the concentration of the mixing water.

The use of the Pogo will also give an instant measurement, simply by dipping the rods into the mixed solution.

The calculation of chemical speciation, however, is somewhat more complicated and requires the water modellingThe new water, with which we can predict the behaviour of the new water, both of its pHthe possibility of calcareous incrustations, redox potentialand much more...

With Rigometer you can now monitor all the water quality parameters you can imagine. It is a customised system developed by Tiloom with which you can know all the variables that affect your pumping system.

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