From
https://watsonwell.com/solving-hard-water-problems-farm-irrigation-systems/
For farmers, this buildup is a much bigger problem. Over time, hard water buildup can damage delivery systems including pumps, nozzles, sprayers, and other system components as well as negatively impacting farming soils.
Soft: 0 to 3.5 gpg / 0 to 60 ppm
Moderately hard: 3.51 to 7.00 gpg / 60.1 to 120 ppm
Hard: 7.01 to 10.50 gpg / 121.1 to 180 ppm
Very hard: More than 10.50 / More than 180 ppm
It is not unusual for farmers to have issues with hard water that is way off the scale.
Impact on Plants
Hard water is more difficult for plants to absorb and break down than soft water.
It tends to bind up soil nutrients, making it more difficult for plants to absorb what they need.
To try and compensate, farmers will tend to increase their rate of irrigation, which leads to other problems.
Impact on Soil
As fields are irrigated and water either evaporates or is absorbed into plants and deep into the ground, the soil is left with all the dissolved mineral salts-calcium carbonate, sodium carbonate, various bicarbonates, etc.-carried by the water.
In areas where there isn’t a lot of rain to flush out this excess salt, it accumulates, and the salinity of the soil steadily increases.
Over time, this hardens the soil. If you’ve ever been out in a dry region and come across hardpan or caliche, this is the end result of soil that’s been exposed to large amounts of hard water over a long period of time.
The buildup of salt causes the soil to bind together, becoming cement-like in extreme cases.
When soil has become hardened, water and important nutrients can’t reach plant
roots. Consequently, crops fail to thrive, become more susceptible to pests and disease and have lower yields.
Impact on Irrigation Systems
Before hard water ever hits the soil of a farmer’s field, it travels through the irrigation system, leaving behind hard water deposits, which eventually reduces the efficiency of water delivery to the plants.
Over time, watering zones may become completely blocked, as is often the case with drip irrigation systems.
SOLUTION
"Our ozone systems generate large amounts of ozone which when injected into water, immediately oxidize or take out of solution undesirable contaminants for ease of filtering.
One of the major advantages of our ozone treatment approach is that it’s easily scalable, including our softeners, to be able to treat larger volumes of contaminated irrigation water.
The ultimate result is soft water that is safe for crops and doesn’t damage irrigation systems.
Softener systems used to capture hardness minerals need to be regenerated periodically, allowing captured hardness minerals to be released to drain or wherever wastewater is directed.
Farmers usually do not want to use softeners because the regeneration process involves a chloride brine solution commonly made from dissolved rock salt pellets.
Their fear is the negative impact any residual sodium brine solution may have on the soils or plants’ roots. But by dissolving potassium pellets in a solution tank essentially making a potassium chloride, it will have absolutely no effect on plants or soils-after all, potassium (or “potash”) is a common fertilizer-and has no accumulative effect on the surrounding environment when flushed to drain."
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