Spring 2006
Green Industries Institute Newsletter

Innovative Irrigation
Fraleigh Nursery Invents the Gro-Eco Way

. . . When it came time to expand the container production area, Fraleigh devised an irrigation plan to help reduce water waste and runoff. After experimenting with different designs for a couple of years. Fraleigh came up with the patented Gro-Eco system.

“We live in a world where water is becoming our most valuable natural resource. Today most all container plant material is watered with sprinkler-type irrigation, creating a ‘rain-like’ effect. This type of watering practice is unfortunately extremely wasteful. Over 80% of the water falls to the ground never reaching the plant’s root system and becomes wastewater runoff. Gro-Eco eliminates this waste,” he explained . . .

“We can irrigate 10 acres of containers with this system for a third of the water it takes with overhead,” he said, “and there is no irrigation runoff to deal with, which improves water quality and quantity, and is great for Best Management Practices. If you are in the State of Florida and you fertilize with overhead you have to capture all your runoff. This system prevents that because you’re not spraying any water outside the container. This method also allows all nutrients to be concentrated in the pot.”

“Another big advantage is that it cools the root systems in the extreme summer heat and warms them in the winter- we actually control the temperature of the raised bed around the container.”

Fraleigh also said he has seen improvement in the consistency of the crops and that a lot of varieties are growing faster…