Successfully managing irrigation in plots that suffer water drainage problems

Harvey Citrus, based in western Australia, is a 40-year-old family business growing and exporting a variety of citrus: from oranges and mandarins to lemons and lime. Harvey citrus is well-known for producing high-quality, healthy citrus fruits.

The Challenge

Harvey citrus is growing Lemons in soils with drainage challenges.
Those conditions cause water lodging prevention of oxygen from the roots and affect productivity and tree health. The daily climatic changes affect the plant’s actual needs, making managing irrigation in these conditions a lot more complicated.

“SupPlant enabled us a much deeper understanding of the reaction of our trees to irrigation, helped us to cope better with drainage problems in sensitive plots, so we were able to prevent water lodging stress and improve growth, while shortening irrigation cycles”
(Andrew Pergoliti, Harvey Citrus, Western Australia)

The Solution

Using SupPlant’s data-rich system, Andrew Pergoliti from Harvey citrus followed the lemon tree’s development throughout the season, focusing on the connection between soil moisture, climatic conditions, and plant development. While monitoring the data he could clearly see where soil moisture was too high for too long: which resulted in a reduced growth rate and showed stress signs, indicating insufficient Oxygen supply to the roots. With SupPlant, he could learn when this is happening and how to adjust the irrigation regime to prevent stress from his trees.

Example of how water stress affects growth: on two occasions we can see an immediate increase in the tree’s growth rate after the soil was allowed to dry, so more air can get between the soil particles supplying the roots with needed Oxygen and so improving the growth rate of the trees.

The Results

Adjusting irrigation management to plant response and improve tree growth despite drainage problems, while saving water and shortening irrigation cycles.