# Flooding orchards and fields in CA on purpose



## Barry Digman (May 21, 2003)

Interesting piece on flooding orchards and fields in CA in order to capture the excess water during heavy rainfall and runoff:

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt...ign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20170112


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## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Interesting link Barry. I'm a bit surprised that these orchards can have standing water in them for so long without any negative impact.


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## bluegrassbees (Apr 19, 2014)

Thank you for posting the link. I grew up sw of Modesto, westside Merced county. Family still in CA with almonds. I hadn't heard of this - interesting.

Becky


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

jim lyon said:


> Interesting link Barry. I'm a bit surprised that these orchards can have standing water in them for so long without any negative impact.


If the roots are dormant (ah sleep ), it won't hurt, but, you can get your
self in trouble if you over do it.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

There was a time when a common method of orchard irrigation was by 'flood' irrigation. I grew up in the CA Bay area, and remember in the 1960's orchards prepared for flood irrigation, similar to this ...









photo credit


Most likely the orchards that I saw in the Santa Clara Valley area set up for flood irrigation were prunes or apricots.


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

Better hope they don't get a big wind after that. Almond trees uproot easily. Ask the northern Ca bee company that tried to winch their stuck truck by tying to the almond trees!


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

Interesting article but with a definite "climate change" slant you would expect from NPR . The reason some reservoirs went so low was because the water went into the ocean during the few big storms we had during the drought, instead of being stored. Not sure that will change until , oh, maybe next week?


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## roberto487 (Sep 22, 2012)

yeah because of the Delta melt fish


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## loggermike (Jul 23, 2000)

Yes and they are delicious fried in butter, as a side dish to roasted spotted owl.
Seriously, the aquifer needs replenished and maybe these guys can find a way to speed it up without too much damage. Lots of snow in the mountains this year,just like a normal winter was before the drought.


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## Fusion_power (Jan 14, 2005)

> Groundwater — which until recently was almost completely unregulated — will have to be managed so that water is there when farmers really need it, when the rains don't fall.


 I love subtle misdirection, especially when it is so blatantly manipulative as this. Regulated by who? Certainly not the farmers who own the land. Power grab anyone? If the farmers don't flood their farmland, there is no water storage. If there is no water storage, the cities go dry. Stated more accurately, they need every farmer to flood their farmland over winter which will benefit all water users so that water will be available both to the farmers and the cities. All the reservoirs and lakes in California don't hold a drop in the bucket compared to the storage capacity of the underground aquifers. There is only one problem. The commercial fertilizer used on that farmland will also leach into the aquifer. Nitrate poisoning is already a problem in several midwestern states.


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## Gino45 (Apr 6, 2012)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> There was a time when a common method of orchard irrigation was by 'flood' irrigation. I grew up in the CA Bay area, and remember in the 1960's orchards prepared for flood irrigation, similar to this ...
> 
> Most likely the orchards that I saw in the Santa Clara Valley area set up for flood irrigation were prunes or apricots.


The flooding of the orchards was done in spring after the winter rains. The farmer would plow temporary dikes to hold the water, then turn on his diesel generator to pump the water from his well to flood the orchard. They would be flooded 2 or 3 times and each time the water would be absorbed back into the ground.

Tree crops that were flooded included cherries, apricots, pears, prunes, and walnuts. These were mixed fields, and I have ordered them in sequence of harvest.

Another interesting feature was the mixture of wild mustard and planted fava beans that were plowed into the soil prior to the flooding. I started backyard beekeeping there about 50 years ago when the lots were large and there were still a few orchards around. The bees did great. Ironically I always figured that the main honey source were the tulip trees planted in the neighborhoods where I lived.

A native son, I couldn't handle it and left eons ago.


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