Air trapped in an irrigation system is more than an inconvenience – it can actually burst the pipes.

When irrigating small areas of up to 1ha, you normally don’t have the luxury of an air valve, so the danger of air getting stuck somewhere in your pipeline and bursting a pipe is a real possibility.

A clever, low-cost shortcut developed by fruit farmers of the Koue Bokkeveld, where featured farmer Theo van Rooyen farms, is to position the taps with which you connect your irrigation system to the water source as low as possible in relation to the water source.

In other words, the taps that you use to open and close your irrigation system need to be placed as low as you possibly can from where you are getting your water.

This way, air always moves to the highest part of the pipe and blows out of your sprayer instead of getting trapped somewhere along the pipe.