WATER WOES

OPERATORS OF PLANT NURSERIES DIFFER ON EXPECTED IMPACT OF WATER RESTRICTIONS

By Shamar Blunt

The owners of three plant nurseries have expressed mixed feelings about the introduction of water restrictions to combat drought conditions on the island.
While Michael Gill of Ashbury Farms, St George is not expecting the limitations on water use to hamper his business’ operations in any significant way, veteran horticulturist and owner of Waldron Creations Owen Waldron, along with Omar Cummins of Plant Whirl Nurseries said it would present challenges.
With the island experiencing a 40 per cent decline in rainfall and drought conditions expected to continue for another two months, Barbadians have been restricted in how they can use water between April 24 and June 30.
Among the prohibitions are using potable water for irrigation or watering gardens, lawns and grounds by hose or a sprinkler system; filling or supplying tanks, ponds, baths or swimming pools, other than for dipping tanks for cattle; washing roadways, pavements, paths, garages, or vehicles by hose, as well as windows and building exteriors.
Gill told Barbados TODAY that while the measures may seem harsh, they were needed given the water scarcity.
He explained that his plant nursery, one of the largest on the island, would be able to cope during the period of restriction.
“We use very little water ever… only to bring on the young plants. When you first set them out in the field and the rain [stops], you put in drips and give it a little water,” explained Gill who has been in horticulture for 38 years.
“When we prepare our nursery and have the plants in the yard in bags – again using minimal water – and when we plant them out we really depend all on rainfall. Only if we get a surprise holdup in rain in the wet season, then we would put in drip irrigation in the newly planted area and save them from dying until they get a little bit more mature.”
Gill noted that the occasional downpours over the last few days would be beneficial to farmers.
Waldron, meanwhile, said that though his business has several systems in place to help with reducing wastage, decreasing water usage at this time would be difficult for him.
“I have thousands of plants; therefore, it is hard for me to wet all of these plants [using] a bucket or a water can. We have a lot of rainwater drums – once the rain is filling them up – but even without the drought we don’t use sprinklers because it would waste water,” he explained.
Waldron added that although rainwater was being harvested in several parts of his nursery, manure has served the additional purpose of helping to maintain moisture within the plants.
“The technique we use [involves] manure to cover the top of the plant pots. We cover the top plant pots and that [helps] to keep in the moisture. So we use a lot of manure around this sort of time,” he said.
Cummins, who has grown various plants in his Thorpes, St James community for about a decade, told Barbados TODAY the water restrictions could cause his revenue to quickly evaporate.
“If we have restrictions on water, all of my plants would die in the dry season. I can’t actually not wet my plants and still have a quality product to sell. I took about 10 years to get my business to this stage [but] it would take a month for everything to die [without water],” he said.
Cummins added that, unlike other plant businesses which catch rainwater or have other systems to recycle water, financial constraints have not allowed him to go that route.
“I don’t have the structural system set up here yet so that water can run off the roof into some tanks. I bought some tanks already, I have the concrete casts and everything, but obviously, things are expensive. I was hoping by this year to actually have the rainwater captured and to start using that system, but not at the moment,” he said.
He also indicated that despite the island experiencing dry conditions on a yearly basis for some time, his business had been doing well and had bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic in an impressive way.
“I would say that I expanded more in terms of funds that would have been invested back into the business. I was able to employ more people in the neighbourhood – not a consistent, everywhere [situation] but in some cases on a small contractor basis. I was able to employ more people than last year for sure,” he said.
shamarblunt@barbadostoday.bb