The Water Conservation Project, a joint project of the Texas Cooperative Extension, Department of Horticultural Sciences, the Texas Water Development Board and the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association, officially started during the TNLA’s EXPO industry event on Aug. 18-21, 2005.
The project will evaluate the amount of water used for the production of nursery/floral crops and how nursery growers use water in their operations. The nursery/floral industry represents the largest segment of irrigated crop producers in Texas with $1.2 billion in receipts, compared to $1.0 billion for cotton in 2001.
The “On-line Water Use Survey,” completed by nursery and floral growers, will help establish a baseline on the amount of water used and will help plan for long-term water use.
The “On-line Analysis for Water Conservation and Surface & Groundwater Contamination” evaluates individual growers’ operations to identify improvements in short and long-term water management practices that can conserve water, reduce irrigation runoff and protect natural resources. The growers receive an electronic report, which summarizes the results of the analysis and provides a conservation/contamination estimate, ranking the potential for implementing best management practices with potential action areas highlighted.
Extension is conducting educational field days to demonstrate the latest in innovative water conservation systems and strategies for nursery/floral producers. Field days were held Sept. 8 at Chamblees Nursery in Tyler, Sept. 22 at Mortellaro’s Nursery in Schertz and another is scheduled for Oct. 6 at Hines Wholesale Nursery in Fulshear, near Richmond.
According to the project’s Web site, no existing body of knowledge exists on how growers use water in their operations or the amount of water used for the production of nursery/floral crops. Without this data, state water planners have made broad assumptions concerning industry water use and potential savings from the implementation of conservation strategies.
For more information, go to http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/greenhouse/TWDB/index.html.
