Even drip irrigation can be made more efficient with comparatively simple, adaptable irrigation automation technology. So says the finding of a University of Florida assessment into watermelon growers in northern Florida’s Suwannee Valley.
Tyler Pittman, the UF Extension agent who conducted the 2024 assessment, explains that watermelon growers in the area already used drip tape under plastic tarping with manual or diesel pumps. Because watermelons benefit from frequent short waterings, and fertilizer efficiency is heavily impacted by proper irrigation, that means a lot of valve flipping for growers.
But the crop is also transient, maybe growing in the same field only once every seven to 10 years according to Pittman, meaning traditional automated irrigation technology built for permanent or consistent crops are difficult for watermelon growers. Pittman wanted to help change that.
“We started with what looked like analog garden timers on water-operated valves,” he says. “We did that with two farmers on about 80 acres as a proof of concept that we could automate this process and take the valve flipping out of the farming so that they could irrigate differently. From there, Toro organically came into the space with Tempus.”
In the 2024 assessment, four area watermelon growers collectively farming 1,883 acres, using Toro’s Tempus AG controller, reported using 24% less water, or an average of 873 gallons, per day irrigating. That amounted to roughly 164 million gallons, or 503 acre-feet, of water saved over the course of the 100-day watermelon growing season in the region.
“We’re flirting with saving more than 696 million gallons of water each year if the farmers of all 8,000 acres of watermelon in the region adopt this technology,” said Pittman in a UF spotlight on the assessment.
Participants in the assessment also reported spending, on average, 1.7 fewer hours in the field per day. One participant reported eliminating three staff as a result of the automation, saving $36,000 over the course of the 100-day growing period, according to an assessment results document.
About the controller
Adoption of irrigation automation in Suwannee Valley’s watermelon growers grew rapidly between 2022 when Pittman conducted his initial proof-of-concept trial on 80 acres to 2024 with the larger assessment. Toro’s Tempus systems have been popular among growers.
“The funny part about [the 2024 assessment] is I was trying to find demo farms for the Toro system, and everybody turned me down,” Pittman says. “Usually, farmers don’t turn down free equipment. But the reason they were turning me down is because they had already purchased it themselves, and that was a testament to the utility of it.”
Tony Tavares, marketing communications manager for Toro, explains the Tempus AG is a controlling automation system developed to be easy to use and install. They are battery powered and use “LoRa” technology that allows for long-range, low-power communication.
This means they “can be installed directly at the valve rather than in a centralized location,” he says. “This makes it very easy to re-deploy the system in different configurations each year as field layouts and irrigation needs change between seasons.”
He adds that the controllers can be operated via Bluetooth by any Android or iOS devices. To use the systems remotely, the controllers need to be in WiFi range or can connect to 4G via base stations provided by Toro.
“I would say probably 90% of the operations here have put in Tempest because it didn’t require the infrastructure and it was simple to install,” says Pittman, adding that the region’s watermelon growers rarely have electricity in the field.
“So having the ability to run something off of 12 volt with solar power that can automate a field, but also be picked up and moved next year to another field, was kind of the big selling point for a lot of our growers,” he adds.
