2024/25 WEBINAR SERIES AND FIELD DAY – ‘OPTIMIZING IRRIGATION
Events: Optimize irrigation to grow climate-resilient hazelnut trees
Hosts: Dr. Thorsten Knipfer (Plant-water relations laboratory, UBC-LFS), Zachary Fleming (Pacific Coast Agriculture), Karina Sakalauskas (BC Ministry of Agriculture)
Date: Saturday March 22, 2025 9AM – 12PM
Locations: Webinars (online) / Field day (in-person, Van Maren Farms)
RSVP: March 18 , 2025
Background: Climate change is causing unprecedent challenges for agricultural production and hazelnut irrigation requirements. Effective irrigation scheduling provides for water savings without affecting yield, control of vegetative growth that reduces pruning, and regulate disease pressure. Since soil moisture sensors provide no direct information on the water status of the tree, there is an urgent need to establish plant-based strategies to schedule irrigation and grow climate-resilient hazelnut trees.
Objective: This event series provides conceptual and applied knowledge that will help you to improve your irrigation scheduling and establish best management practices.
Benefits: By the end of this series, you have learned about concepts that inform irrigation management and acquired knowledge about decision-making tools to determine when and how much to irrigate.
Activities: The webinar and field day is targeted towards engagement of BC producers and knowledge transfer.
FIELD DAY – Irrigation – How to monitor your orchard
Share knowledge and obtain hands-on experience on irrigation strategies during field demonstrations.
March 22, 2025 – Van Maren Farms, 10160 Grigg Road, Chilliwack
9:00am – 9:15am Welcome and Agenda (Thorsten Knipfer, Karina Sakalauskas, Zach Fleming)
9:15am – 9:30am Round table: How do you irrigate? (Zach Fleming)
9:30am-10:00am Is your tree under soil water stress? Demonstration of SWP & pressure chambers (Bag Leaves) (Steven Bristow, Thorsten Knipfer)
10:00am – 10:30am Field monitoring of soil and atmospheric conditions: Visit of Hortau station, PeakWeather station, and ET station (Cornel Van Maren, Thorsten Knipfer)
10:30 am -11:00am Working groups: Measure SWP (Leaves now at Equilibrium) and how to use it for irrigation scheduling (Steven Bristow, Thorsten Knipfer)
11:00am – 11:15am Next Steps & Funding Programs (Zach Fleming, Karina Sakalauskas)
11:15am – 12:00 Closing discussion (Thorsten Knipfer)