In cooperation with the irrigation specialist, Rathmakers Gartenbautechnik, the horticultural entrepreneur, Peter Dercks has developed a precision irrigation cart for watering individual plant pots. The North Rhine Westphalia Chamber of Agriculture is supporting the project.
The precision irrigation carts developed by Peter Dercks and Rathmakers Gartenbautechnik together with Klaus Karl make it possible to apply water and fertiliser in exact doses via a nozzle over the individual pots. This saves huge quantities of water and at the same time significantly reduces the levels of nitrogen introduced into the ground water, explains Karl. It is his task to support the project, to test the technology and to report the results. The reliability in practice and economic aspects are important criteria for the development of the precision irrigation cart.
The first prototype of the precision irrigation cart was constructed in 2015 at the horticultural company Dercks. It is used to water large pots. Its working width is 30 metres and it can travel up to 80 metres. For a stock of ten pots per net square metre it allowed approximately 70 per cent of water to be saved as compared to a conventional row irrigation cart. In the meantime it has become ready for serial production.