“Prior to harvesting peanuts, we pull up the drip tape, harvest the peanuts, and then go back into a cotton/corn rotation for three to five years. Then, we go back into peanuts. Essentially, the drip tape is being used like a nozzle on a pivot.”

The advantages of shallow subsurface drip irrigation are many, but it’s still used sparingly in the lower Southeast on traditional row crops.

The advantages of subsurface drip irrigation include the potential for more precise managing of water near the roots of crops, minimizing losses due to evaporation, installing systems in fields with irregular shapes, allowing for spoon-feeding nutrients (especially important in locations where rainfall can leach significant nutrients), and zoning of irrigation areas based on limited water supplies and differing water needs of soils and crops, says Ron Sorensen, agronomist and soil scientist with the National Peanut Research Laboratory in Dawson, Ga.

Read more: Southeast Farm Press

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