Weed Elimination for Large Nursery, USA
Country
USA
Application
Protect Irrigation Systems
Water source
Pond Water
Filtration solution
Filtomat M106XLP + M104XLP
Background
Native Texas Nursery is a 40 acre nursery that provides native plants to Texas garden centers, landscapers, architects, municipalities and other organizations. The water source for their plants is a pond on their property filled by wells.
Challenge
The pond providing the water for the nursery became contaminated with weed seeds by natural infiltration. These seeds were transferred to the pots around the nursery by the irrigation system (drip, micro spray, impact and shrub heads). The weed seeds grew and thrived in the pots along with the desired native plants. All the weeds had to be manually removed from the pots to preserve the quality of the native plants. During worst case conditions, in the Spring of 2016, the nursery employed six full time staff members whose sole job was to remove weeds from the pots on the property and to control weed growth around the pond (to attempt to reduce further weed distribution and growth). Native Texas Nursery approached Amiad during a local trade show which began the process of finding a solution for this issue.
Solution
The nursery has two main irrigation lines, both supplied by VFD pumps to provide a constant pressure of 70 PSI. One line distributes 300-400 GPM and the second distributes 200-300 GPM. The Amiad staff recommended 130 micron filtration in order to remove the weed seeds and to protect the irrigation system from other contaminants from the pond which could clog irrigation sprayers or heads. A Filtomat M106XLP was supplied for the larger system and a M104XLP for the smaller system. Both were supplied with an electronic control system. Each Filtomat filter allows for flow fluctuations and changes in water quality over the seasons. The filters were installed in February of 2017.
Results
Since the installation of the two filter systems, Native Texas Nursery has had zero incidences of weeds growing along with their native plants. A single staff member is still tasked with checking for weeds for a few hours each week and to control the weed growth around the pond. The reduction in staff alone from the 2016 to 2017 growing season has saved the nursery close to $36,000. This resulted in an ROI in less than one year. Emily Brown, the general manager had this to say about the Amiad filters: “We were fighting a losing battle against weed seeds and plugged sprinkler heads for years. We purchased and installed two Filtomat filters last fall and they have paid for themselves – and then some – in labor savings in just one spring. We freed up manpower for other tasks and have seen our weed issues go from plague status to almost non-existent. This is one of the best investments we have made in our facility.”
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