Grieveson has 22 years of experience with irrigation, and when he assembled a team in 2007, he made sure to hire people with a wide range and depth of experience in the industry. With that knowledge base, New Leaf is able to design, supply the materials for, build and install irrigation systems for greenhouses and open-field operations. A main part of their business, however, is taking greenhouse technology and adapting it to tunnel production in fields. But as Grieveson mentioned, that takes a bit of skill.
“We can install a simple dosing rig in a potato field, for example,” he explained. “But the controller that manipulates the valve would need to be in the field and the valve needs to be controlled via radio so that there aren't any cables to worry about.” The equipment and setup to place the system in a field, where it's open to the elements, takes a lot of planning and know-how. That expertise is necessary in order to deal with the many challenges that come with taking approaches that were tested in a greenhouse and applying them outside.
When it comes to irrigating substrate grown crops in a field, our biggest challenge is always to accurately survey the site,” noted Grieveson. “Particularly with height, we need to achieve a level of uniformity from one dripper to the next, so we need to survey the site properly and come up with a design that takes into account the topography of the field to ensure that water is applied evenly.” But those challenges shouldn't discourage growers from applying the greenhouse techniques out in the open, it just means that growers need professional help in order to reap the benefits of that technology.
“It's easy to install some systems in a greenhouse because everything's controlled,” said Grieveson. “But our professional experience allows us to make the calculations to bring it outside.”
For more information: New Leaf Irrigation
Darran Grieveson, Managing Director
T: 01953 681590
E:[email protected]
W: www.newleafirrigation.co.uk