Just saw the most amazing movie called The Vanishing of the Bees (http://www.vanishingbees.com/). The video goes extensively into the mysterious bee disappearance and our current scientific understanding. But more importantly, bees are the “canary in the mineshaft”, they just might be our motivation for reversing our insane dependence on pesticides and chemical agriculture. Unfortunately, the video is not free. Here is the trailer for the video.
agriculture
Irrigation System Construction Photos – Finca Alzamora, UPRM Campus
Blog for pragwater.com
Irrigation System Construction Photos – Finca Alzamora, UPRM Campus
An irrigation system was designed and constructed for an organic fruit tree orchard in the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez campus farm, Finca Alzamora (Lat 18.220247°, Lon -67.145497°, see Figure 1). The system has a capacity of irrigating up to 60 trees at a rate of 25 gallons per hour. Currently there are approximately 30 small trees at the site.
Figure 1. The organic fruit orchard is located on the left half of the hill.
The system consists of a 1.25 in. PVC mainline laid on the slope and 8 3/4 in. PVC laterals oriented along the topographic contours. All PVC pipe will be buried 1 ft below the surface (Figure 2). Two-gallon per hour pressure compensating emitters used. Up to five drip emitters or micro-spray emitters can be used. The system header is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 2. 1.25 in. Mainline and 3/4 in. lateral PVC tubing.
Figure 2. Irrigation system header and mainline. The header includes a ball valve, air vacuum relief valve, cumulative water meter, filter and pressure gauge.
Numerous students from Dr. Pablo Payam’s organic fruit production course and my irrigation course helped to construct the system. Figure 4 shows students gluing together pieces of PVC pipe. Click here to view more photos.
Figure 4. UPRM Agronomy students helping to construct the irrigation system.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PHOTOS
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Redefining agricultural yields: from tonnes to people nourished per hectare
Obtained from: http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/8/3/034015/article
Courses offered this semester at UPRM: Farm Irrigation and Agroclimatology (TMAG)
I will be offering the following two courses this semester at UPR-Mayaguez. Please click the following links for the course fliers.
TMAG 5017 Agroclimatology
TMAG 4019 Farm Drainage and Irrigation Systems
Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information about either course.
Eric Harmsen, Professor
University of Puerto Rico
Dept. of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681
email: harmsen1000@hotmail.com, eric.harmsen@upr.edu
phone: 787-955-5102
websites: http://pragwater.com , http://bahai.org
Daily Reference Evapotranspiration (ETo) for Haiti and the Dominican Republic
Daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is now available for Haiti and the Dominican Republic. CLICK HERE to visit the new pragwater page, which provides a link to the daily image data and the method background information. The page also provides information related to the practical application of the results for scheduling irrigation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This research received partial funding from the following sources: NOAA-CREST (grant NA06OAR4810162) and USDA Hatch Project (Hatch-402). Special thanks to Dr. John Mecikalski for providing the solar radiation data, and Alejandra Rojas for providing various GIS maps used in this research. I would like to thank my student, Victor Reventos, who made this possible through his Python programming skills.
DISCLAIMER: The information is provided “as is”. The authors and publishers of this information disclaim any loss or liability, either directly or indirectly as a consequence of applying the information provided herein, or in regard to the use and application of said information. No guarantee is given, either expressed or implied, in regard to the accuracy, or acceptability of the information.
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Course offerings this semester at UPRM: Farm Irrigation and Agroclimatology (TMAG)
I will be offering the following two courses this semester at UPR-Mayaguez. Please click the following links for the course fliers.
TMAG 5017 Agroclimatology
TMAG 4019 Farm Drainage and Irrigation Systems
Please feel free to contact me if you would like additional information about either course.
Eric Harmsen, Professor
University of Puerto Rico
Dept. of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681
email: harmsen1000@hotmail.com, eric.harmsen@upr.edu
phone: 787-955-5102
websites: http://pragwater.com , http://bahai.org
Enviromentally-friendly, landscape fabric, reusable mulching system
Environmentally-Friendly, landscape fabric, reusable mulching system
Excellent technology! Hats off to House in the Woods Farm for their re-usable mulch layer. I use the same machine in my Drip Irrigation laboratory. I would love to be able to replace the plastic with the landscape fabric.
“…..a water-permeable, air-permeable reusable weed-barrier that is laid out in 15 minutes by a tractor. The mulch machine layer makes a raised bed, lays out the drip tape, lays out the reusable cloth, tucks the edges under soil and makes your dinner, all in one or two passes of the tractor.” Read more…
Webinar: Less water, healthier plants: Controlling irrigation with soil moisture sensors
Webinar: Less water, healthier plants: Controlling irrigation with soil moisture sensors
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