January 2025 40 Under 40, Management, Production

Forty under 40 perspectives: Irrigation at a large container farm By Matthew Lehmann

When I started working at Bailey Nurseries, I was blown away by the size of the operation. The bulk of my prior experience was working at a much smaller production facility where we hand watered containers of annuals, perennials and shrubs. This gave me a great foundation on the principles of plant water requirements. 

Fast forward to my career at Bailey Nurseries, where I work at our container facility in Illinois. We are growing fields and fields of perennials and shrubs in containers, mainly 2 gallons. At peak, we can have one million containers on the ground. Watering is accomplished using overhead sprinklers, four 100-horsepower pumps and a wireless radio controller, all working in conjunction to move over two million gallons of water every day. No hand watering here! 

Since we are operating on a large scale, there’s a lot of planning to make sure things go as smoothly as possible. This includes making a new watering schedule every day for the following day. That schedule is distributed to our irrigation staff and field supervisors allowing them to see what lines are coming on and when. This helps them plan the day for their crews. 

There are many things that affect what we water and when we are watering it. Varieties, crop stage and weather are the biggest factors. For example, varieties of cornus use a lot of water during the growing season but once the temperatures start to decrease they require very little water. Then, at the end of the season, they need to dry down some as they don’t tolerate wet roots throughout the winter. 

I also work closely with our production department to help group varieties of plants together that have similar watering requirements. This is especially important when we start growing new varieties. Sometimes, it takes a little trial and error to figure out the best placement for a new variety. 

Over the last few years, we have implemented different technologies to improve our effectiveness and efficiency in irrigation. We have weather stations at various locations around the farm with built-in cellular modems allowing us to monitor conditions in real time. When a storm comes through, we can see exactly how much it has rained. This helps us determine if we can decrease our run times or turn the irrigation off completely for the day. We also use wind data to determine how many pots may have blown over to help decide staff needs for resetting plants. Having this data available immediately allows us to make decisions right away, even if we are off-site.

Next, we installed wireless controllers on the variable frequency drives that run our pumps to allow us to control, schedule and monitor remotely. This saves us from having to send someone to drive to each pumping station to turn them on and off every day. It also helps us see how hard each pump is working and gauge how much capacity we may have left in any given setting. This is especially important on hot, sunny days when we may need to water certain lines longer than normal and are already watering a majority of the farm. 

Finally, we are in the process of converting to a new control system for our valves. This is a wireless system that uses an app and radio frequency to operate solenoids. This system gives us more flexibility in each setting than the old system. We can run lines in the same setting for different lengths of time. It also allows us to change lines or even whole settings all while the system is actively running. It is especially helpful when some lines need more water due to excessive heat or less water due to a rain shower. Since this is an app-based program, we can also access the system from anywhere we have cell service. 

These technologies have greatly improved our watering practices, especially the remote access features of each of them. Since watering the container farm is seven days per week, 8-12 hours per day, it gives us peace of mind when we’re off the farm and watering is still occurring. With these technologies, we can efficiently water the farm with significantly less staff than would be required if we ran things manually. They also help us give the plants exactly what they need, exactly when they need it.