Posted on 05/04/2009 7:47:18 AM PDT by Baruchg
A new method for irrigating fields has been developed in Israel and will be presented at the upcoming International Agritech Exhibition 2009 in Tel Aviv.
The water crisis in Israel and throughout the world is expediting the development of technological solutions for reducing the amount of water used in agriculture. In the new method, dew that falls during the night is channeled and used to irrigate produce.
Normally, drops of dew that fall on a field would not reach a plant's roots since the small amount of water doesn't penetrate deep into the soil. But with the new technology...
(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...
Interesting, and completely logical. Looks promising.
Frank Hebert wrote this technology in “Dune”.
/sarc
Many plants take in water thru the upper parts of the plant, and dew has been “watering” a plant like this for many years.
Brawndo! It's Got Electrolytes! It's what plants crave.
Don't forget to mention that it was written 40 years ago.
Just about to say: What works on Arrakis can work in Israel.
“What works on Arrakis can work in Israel.”
That will depend on how much influence House of Harkonnin has on Israeli politics. The engineering may be easy but the political aspects of anything that involves spice or water must be carefully weighed.
The wilderness and the desert will be glad,
and the Arabah will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus it will bloom profusely
and rejoice with rejoicing ad shout of joy...
For waters will break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the Arabah.
And scorched land will become a pool
and the thirsty ground springs of water...
Isaiah 35: 1,2,6,7
WOW.....this sounds like prophecy being fulfilled....another sign of the end times.
If any of you have read “Left Behind”, just this sort of thing was part of the overall plot uncovered in the first 10 pages of the first book. In the series, Israel had developed agriculture technology that allowed them to turn desert land into some of the best producing land in the world. Very interesting . . .
Not to deride the technolgy, but it looks like any old joe (or Yosef) could get the same effect if he took a large plastic picnic plate and punched a whole in it, cost .08 at Walmart.
Not quite. The collectors are pleated, which probably doubles the surface area for the dew to condense on.
That is a good point. I noticed the pleating as well and was wondering what common item I have like that. There are styrofoam meat trays that you get in supermarkets that have a pleating similar to that. I live in a desert area and I think I might give it a try.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Correct. My lawn gets watered by the dew all the time
The water crisis in Israel and throughout the world......the "throughout the world" part refers to a great many predominantly Moslem nations, including the Aral Sea basin which has been perhaps irreparably harmed by Soviet "planning"; to northern China (part of the reason for the Three Gorges Dam is to reroute water to a drying-out northern river); most populated islands.
Another interesting experiment would be testing plastic versus metal plates. The metal might be chilled by the night desert air and condense more dew.
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