Fertilize Crops With Air

Fertilize Crops With Air CROPS Miscellaneous 19-6-3 A Colorado company that designs subsurface drip irrigation systems has come up with a new way to boost yields - they pump air into the plant root zone. Gro-Aire Irrigation Systems, Inc., Denver, Colo., began offering the system last year after testing it extensively for several years. The company's subsurface poly tubing is specially designed for both water and air, with each delivered separately. An air compressor powered by a diesel engine or electric motor is used to deliver air. "Pumping oxygen to plant roots allows them to do a better job of taking up nutrients and water," says Dave Enyeart, senior engineer. "The extra air promotes bacterial reactions in the soil that break down organic matter and convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form that can be•used by plants. The bottom line is that farmers save money by reducing or eliminating the use of commercial fertilizers without sacrificing yields. In fact, many growers have been able to in-crease yields with less fertilizer. We've seen alfalfa yields increase from 6 tons per acre to as much as 10 tons per acre. "The system has also been used on pop-corn, field corn, sweet corn, vegetable crops, triticale test plots, nursery trees, etc. So far we've installed over a million feet of the specially-designed tubing in Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Oregon, and-Idaho. We started out doing small 20 and 50-acre plots, but the projects keep getting bigger. This fall we installed a system on 40 acres of potatoes. We can even install the system on fields irrigated by center pivots. Air moves farther in the soil than water does so much less tubing is needed, greatly reducing the cost. We use special-designed subsurface irrigation tubing that works well for both water and air. Conventional subsurface tubing doesn't work as well with air as it does with water. The technology was developed over the past 17 years at universities, experiment stations, and on private farms,. As far as we know we're the only company to offer it commercially." The company sells "air generation stations" that include a diaphragm or piston compressor for smaller plots and a blower for larger fields. After each irrigation, the valve that controls the water pump is shut off and a set of air valves" is opened to al-low air into the tubing "We custom design each system according to the field and soil conditions and crop type. Cost ranges from $650 to $2,300 per acre." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gro-Aire Irrigation Systems, Inc., 1120 Lincoln St., Suite 704, Denver, Colo. 80203 (ph 303 650-0472).

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