Feature: Water management in the greenhouse

Water plays a key role in ensuring a good crop. A tomato plant, for example, consumes about 5 litres of water on a sunny day. This means that growers need to adopt a conscious and economic approach to water consumption. This can be achieved, for example, by harvesting rainwater in basins, pumping up water from the soil, and recirculating water used in the greenhouse.

All rain falling on the greenhouse is collected in gutters and discharged by rainwater pipes into basins. These basins are next to the greenhouses. This rainwater is ideally suited to meeting the plants’ water requirements. Fertilisers are added to the water given to the plants to provide for the optimum growth of the tomato plants.

Water supplies can also be obtained by using reverse osmosis, a process in which groundwater is pumped up and filtered ready for use. The surplus water that is not immediately taken up by the plants is collected and recycled. This recirculation system recycles both the water and the fertilisers dissolved in the water, which eliminates discharge to surface water.