HEPIA, the Wepot company and several local authorities have joined forces in a research project aimed at improving the irrigation of young trees after planting. Summer weather conditions pose a real challenge for irrigation, requiring more efficient methods that are adapted to water conservation and optimal tree development. These methods must also meet the time management needs of the municipal staff.
The aim of this project is to compare two irrigation systems for ornamental trees that will be planted in 2024, and to study their development over the first two years. The systems studied will be ollas, developed by the company Wepot, and bags of water purchased from a supplier.
A preliminary study carried out in 2022 by Bachelor's students at HEPIA compared ollas, drip and sprinkler irrigation systems on ornamental trees.
This work showed encouraging results in terms of substantial water savings using ollas, while guaranteeing similar tree growth.
The aim of this new study is to demonstrate in situ the great potential for water savings using ollas, while ensuring that the trees grow well. The monitoring of watering will also be quantified in order to simplify it and thus reduce the workload while ensuring better tree growth.
Project partner(s)
Project leader - team
Alexandre Monod
(HEPIA)