Subject: Reply to your query on vectored irrigation

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 22 Nov 1994 12:12:30 -0500

Date: Mon, 21 Nov 1994 15:39:08 -0500
From: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Vectored subsurface irrigation
To: [email-masked]
Message-id: <[email-masked]>

I have some limited experience with this practice.  I am a grape grower in
the Coachella Valley Calif.  Around 10 years ago, I had a problem with water
retention in a very sandy  area of a ranch.  I deep plowed the vine rows and
laid plastic  about 3 feet deep at the greatest depth and about 5 feet wide
in a "V" shape and replanted the vines in the vine row.  The vines in this
area grew normally and produced slightly more fruit that before.  However,
about 4 years into the project the vines showed signs that they were not as
well rooted as the vines without the plastic.  The vines wilted after a
girdle application (knife around the cambiam layer of the trunk for sugar)
followed with high heat (over 115 degrees).   I eventually replanted without
the plastic.  When I replanted this time I first slip-plowed the vine rows to
a depth of 6 feet and 18 inches wide to mix all layers of soil and to allow
deeper root penetration.  This method was far more successful for Table Grape
Vineyards and has now become the standard procedure for new plantings in my
valley.
Rob Carian