Issue #2

As a grower, your job is never easy. It seems you never can produce enough of the one plant everyone wants to buy. Likewise, it feels like you're often stuck with lots and lots of plants that nobody wants.

Then you have the regular challenge of finding a few people who care enough to help you run the business.

All this, while it feels like the beasts (pests and disease) are always outside (or inside!) your door.

Some days it's enough to suck the joy right out of what we're doing.

In moments like these, it helps to remind ourselves how lucky we are to work in horticulture. We produce living things that bring great joy to people all over the world, every day! I thought I'd include a few of the benefits of plants in our environment. I will give you more in future editions. The list is long for a single newsletter!

On the technical side we'll explore how too much of a good thing is dangerous when it comes to water purity.

Thank you for reading. If there are topics you would like for me to cover, please send me a note! With that I bring you Issue #2.

Surprising Benefits of Plants

As horticulturists, our work is where plants and people meet. We know that plants provide us with food, oxygen for us to breathe and help to purify the air around us. Now we know that plants in our environment give us many psychological benefits too! Scientific journal articles detail the many ways plants help to better our lives. This lengthy list continues to grow!

At all stages of life, plants enrich us. Scientific studies are proving it!

Introducing children to gardening provides physical, emotional, and developmental benefits. Kids involved in gardening projects score higher in science achievement.

Most kids today could use more physical activity. Gardening helps develop motor skills and strength. Moving soil, carrying a watering can, pushing a wheelbarrow, and digging in the dirt are a workout! These “heavy work” activities help children stay calm and focused.

Kids who garden have improved moods, better learning experiences and decreased anxiety. The sense of pride a child gets from eating a cucumber that she grew herself is priceless!

As a kid, I loved all fruits and vegetables, except for fresh tomatoes. For whatever reason, I found the idea of eating a tomato unappealing. That all changed when I picked the first red, ripe tomato I grew myself. Standing there in the hot Texas summer sun, I decided to take a bite. To my amazement, I found it to be delicious! This was quite unlike the flavorless tomatoes from the grocery store.

Did you know that plants are one of the greatest crime prevention tools for urban areas? Public housing buildings with plantings had 52% fewer total crimes. Buildings with plants had 48% fewer property crimes and 56% fewer violent crimes!

Studies show that roads featuring landscaped greenways prevent road rage.

Plants in the workplace can increase employee retention and productivity! Employees with plants in their work areas report greater satisfaction and enhanced focus. This results in an average productivity increase of 15%!

The floral gifts we give to recuperating patients have more than sentimental value. Hospital patients with plants and flowers in their rooms recovered quicker. While in the hospital they reported lower pain ratings and less need for pain medication. These patients experienced less anxiety and fatigue. Their rooms brought greater satisfaction and more positive feelings too!

Plants provide great benefits to elderly residents of assisted living facilities. The act of caring for a houseplant has positive effects on a resident happiness. Caring for plants significantly decreased agitation in Alzheimer’s patients. Residents with plants in their rooms enjoyed longer lives and a higher quality of life.

Once I helped residents of an assisted care facility to design a horticulture center. Their excitement over getting their own space to tend plants was contagious! They were so proud of this project. They sent me an effusive thank you letter once the project was complete!

Plants can help us all in life. People who live in areas with more vegetation in their surroundings, have a lower risk of mortality. Notably, deaths from cancer, respiratory disease and kidney disease decreased the most.

One could easily fill the pages of several books with the multitude benefits of plants in our lives. More benefits are being discovered all the time. For these reasons and more, I encourage you all to go plant something today!

Can Irrigation Water be Too Pure?

In any growing operation the water flowing to your crops is the lifeblood of the system. Alkalinity and pH are the two main factors which affect nutrient availability.

Alkalinity represents the ability of water to neutralize an acid. Think of this like the buffering capacity. Highly alkaline water requires more acid to offset the alkalinity and lower the pH. Bicarbonates, carbonates, and / or hydroxides comprise alkalinity. These pair together with calcium, magnesium, or sodium atoms. We express Alkalinity as ppm calcium carbonate (CaCO3) equivalent. A high ppm CaCO3 concentration means that more of these molecules are present in the water. The pH usually rises as alkalinity concentration increases. For these reasons it is crucial to test not only the pH of your water but also the alkalinity. This helps you ensure that fertilizer elements are available to the plants.

Growers often inject acid (sulfuric or phosphoric) into their water. Acidic fertilizers are also used. These two methods are commonly used by growers to manage alkalinity. Sulfuric acid is common because it is usually the cheapest option for the grower. Always test your water first before selecting an acid. Sometimes the sulfates are high in our raw water and the last thing we want to do is add more Sulfur to the water.

Today, some growers use Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration to purify alkaline water. RO purification is very effective at removing alkalinity from water. Unfortunately, it does pose a new set of challenges for the grower.

RO systems are effective at removing most dissolved solids from water. This results in close to pure H2O and the alkalinity of the RO water is almost 0 ppm. Exposing plants to water lacking alkalinity can be hazardous to the crop. Water leaches essential ions and may damage the root system. Ultra-pure water can also damage your infrastructure, like metal pipes. Further, certain nutrients may become available in toxic amounts. It is important to distinguish between pH (potential hydrogen) and alkalinity. Increasing the alkalinity of water may likely increase the pH. Alkalinity is actually a representation of the buffering capacity of water. Another way of thinking of buffering capacity is “resistance to change.”

Water lacking alkalinity (such as produced by reverse osmosis) will not resist change. Rather, it will be susceptible to wide swings in pH, depending on the influencing factor. Bases, containing Hydroxide (OH) anions will cause dramatic increases in pH. Acids, containing Hydrogen (H) cations will result in significant drops in pH. Most fertilizer sources acidify water. When dissolved in solution in RO water, the effect on pH can be surprising, often resulting in pH crashes. Even plain RO water sitting in a tank will turn acidic. Interaction between H2O and carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air forms carbonic acid (HCO3). This causes the pH of stored water to drop over time.

The analogy of driving a car on the highway comes to mind. To keep the car in the lane requires making small course corrections with the steering wheel. At highway speeds, even changing lanes requires minimal steering motion. Jerking the wheel to the left or right causes undesirable overcorrection. This behavior may result in a crash. The same is true with managing the irrigation water in a growing operation. This is especially true with pH management. Small adjustments are best, to keep the pH within the desirable range for the crop. You need buffer in the source water to avoid drastic swings in pH. This provides the desired resistance to change, permitting small course corrections. This helps to keep the pH within the target range.

Yes, it is possible for irrigation water to be too pure. Growers who use RO systems have options to increase the stability of their water. These all involve adding buffer. If the source water is alkaline, it already has some type of buffer, but likely in excess. If this is the case, RO systems may be set up to decrease the rejection % of water from the system. Adjusting this % can leave in enough alkalinity to create stability. Adjusting the rejection % of this water may not be possible. Then you can blend in a small amount of original source water with the RO water to result in desired alkalinity.

Other options for buffering RO water include addition of alkalinity boosters. Examples include potassium carbonate or potassium bicarbonate.

Water is the lifeblood of your fertigation system. When you start with the desired quality it makes one aspect of your job a bit easier. An alkalinity of 100 ppm (160 meq) is a good starting point for water that is stable enough to resist sharp swings in pH.

Until next time, Keep on Growing!

Did you find value in this newsletter? Please consider sharing it with your network.

Receive this Newsletter Directly in Your Inbox: Click Here!