"Investing in a good irrigation system is one of the wisest decisions a grower can make. Labor is expensive, and the return on capital for irrigation is among the highest in the greenhouse industry," says Louis Damm, sales manager and key account manager at Dramm Corporation.
Dramm Corporation has long been a leader in the horticultural industry for hand-watering tools and complete irrigation systems. While the ultimate goal is to automate as many repetitive tasks in the greenhouse as possible, Louis emphasizes that growers need to understand the nuances and challenges of hand watering to better understand automated irrigation.
"If you don't understand the manual process of delivering water to the plant, then you don't know what we are automating," says Louis. "Many growers have been getting away with not understanding this in recent years, but with the shortage of talent, we need ways to train newcomers to the industry. We can't just send people into the greenhouse to water."
Dramm works with multiple grower-retailers, many of which irrigate manually. The high turnover of employees in the horticultural sector and the overall labor shortage has hit these businesses especially hard. Dramm has always put a strong emphasis on offering training sessions and resources to help growers and workers water more effectively and reduce the amount of time spent on this task.
"We have a lot of really good ideas for reducing labor in the greenhouse. In the past two years, growth in the horticultural industry has outpaced the availability of labor. We are putting an emphasis on labor-saving to help qualified people spend less time on these tasks and more in the business," Louis explains.
Principles of irrigation carry forward into chemical application
Aside from giving growers a stronger understanding of greenhouse irrigation, the benefits of understanding hand watering extend beyond irrigation and into chemical applications, including fungicides, insecticides, and biocides, among others.
"Watering principles apply to crop protection products. By providing training on watering, we are highlighting the after-hours jobs and how to do these more effectively and efficiently," notes Louis.
Dramm back in action at tradeshows
With 2022 seeing the return of in-person tradeshows, Dramm has been making its rounds and reconnecting with industry members face-to-face. The company was present at GreenTech Amsterdam in June, Cultivate '22 in July, and Plug and Cutting Conference in September. Next on the agenda is the Canadian Greenhouse Conference from October 5-6th (Booth #833), followed by IPM Essen in November.
At the Canadian Greenhouse Conference, Dramm will be putting a special emphasis on how growers can generate labor savings. Dramm is also sponsoring a workshop hosted by OMAFRA's Jason Deveau. The workshop, entitled "Air-assisted Sprayer Technology: Worth it or does it blow?" will be offered three times: Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday morning. Visit Dramm at Booth #833 to learn more about irrigation, water treatment, filtration, and everything else pertaining to greenhouse water management. After all, Dramm's slogan is that they are everything water.
For more information:
Dramm Corporation
2000 North 18th Street
Manitowoc, WI 54221
USA
Phone: 920-684-0227
www.dramm.com