Direct Irrigation, Page 3

How Direct Irrigation was Discovered

	Dr Stefan Ehrlich, a retired agricultural engineer and an appointed United Nations International Agricultural Expert spent much of his career in water-related areas of research. Dr Ehrlich was attempting to develop a method of preventing the water loss associated with conventional irrigation. He noticed that all conventional irrigation techniques had one thing in common: the emitted water into the soil from where the plants then obtained it. He also observed that only a very small fraction of water applied in irrigation was actually absorbed by the plant; the rest either evaporated from the soil or seeped down into the water table; in either case, the water was wasted since it did not reach the plant.
	Dr Ehrlich reasoned that it might be better to give the water directly to the plant instead of passing it through the soil. His first Water Well ™ was a simple container with water supply pipe such as shown here. Since the water went into the container and not into the soil, it was quite obvious that it would save on irrigation water, which it did. However, there were surprises as well. Here is a schematic of an early Water Well ™.
	Originally, the Water Wells ™ contained fertilizer added to the water. By trial and error, Dr Ehrlich discovered that plants grew better and faster on plain water than on water with fertilizer added. Thus is was discovered that Direct Irrigation not only prevents water loss in irrigation, but acts as a powerful stimulator for plant growth. When he showed the plants to a professional colleague, the colleague did not believe that the effect was due to water alone. He asserted, "You have used a secret growth stimulant." Dr Ehrlich thought about this for some time and came to the conclusion that plain water applied to roots was a powerful growth stimulant. He was surprised at this phenomenon. He later discussed this with his colleague, Dr David F Mayer, who hypothesized that bypassing of reverse osmotic pressure might be responsible. This was borne out by many additional experiments.