As part of Best Management Practices (BMP),
many nurseries are switching to computer-controlled
cyclic or interval irrigation (pulse irrigation) with
impact sprinklers. Rather than manually turning on
valves to run irrigation for 60 minutes, an environmentalcontrol
computer is programmed to precisely run the
irrigation system three times daily at 5 to 10 minutes
per cycle (123). Since most water is absorbed by the
containers within the first 5 minutes, cyclic or pulse
irrigation uses less water, greatly reduces water and fertility
runoff, and lowers the amount of fertilizer needed
in the fertigation system.