WATER : Florida's Key Natural Resource

In our second year of operation we pioneered the recycling of irrigation water here in Florida. There was at least one other operation that used flood irrigation but they dumped the excess water off into the canal at the end of each irrigation cycle. Robrick was the first in Florida to recapture the excess irrigation water and use it over and over in each irrigation cycle. This practice of flooding the floor and then reusing the excess water hugely reduced our water consumption and meant we had zero run-off. We became a closed system.

In addition to saving water and reducing run-off through the use of flood irrigation, Robrick also uses several Echo systems for hanging baskets. These systems put a lot of baskets in space that would otherwise be wasted up near the roof of the greenhouse. They are very precise in the application of water and very little runs through the baskets.

When plants are moved outside in the spring they are put on drip emitters rather than under sprinklers. We have recently added a sprinkler zone capable of frost protecting some plants. While these sprinklers put down a huge amount of water the water comes from a retention pond that is filled by the rain water collected from the roof of the greenhouses. The sprinkler zone itself was very carefully graded with a laser guided motorgrader so all excess water drains back to the pond. The system has now been in use for years and we have not added any well water to the pond.