The information here describes the equipment purchased, and our experience one year later. Some of the following information will be familiar from the earlier post.
Why did we purchase the Pursanova system? The short answer, --reading, listening, experience, and seeing the potential for taking a big step toward Regenerative Agriculture on the land we steward. In February 2020, our bio group was introduced to the technology, and although outlandish, it intrigued me. 2020, I read a couple of books on water, and talked to growers back east who have used this equipment for a number of years. Most of my contacts started out with just the (reverse osmosis) RO unit, but all gravitated to the Pursanova Disc's and Structure Tubes over time. No one said they would quit using it. No one could give me research data showing it's value. Everyone had a lot of antidotal evidence supporting their use of the Pursanova water. Most use the water year around on the farm and in the house. Vatche' has some big fruit grower accounts, but they are secretive about it's use. Our first experience using the Pursanova water technology, the fall of 2021, was good enough that we wanted to continue, but was concerned about getting the (Spokane Conservation District) SCD's unit when we needed it, so chose to purchase our own. The "water structure" technology is separate from the RO equipment. There are a lot of RO equipment outlets. They each have their sales pitch, and it can be confusing. We decided to stay with Vatche, and purchased his complete setup, except for the water softener equipment. We chose a descaler by US Water Systems in place of the bulky water softening equipment. The pic below is our unit mounted in an insulated 6x6x12' box trailer, consisting (ccw) of a 300gal supply tank, a Pursanova disc and bank of three big blue filters mounted on the wall, a 60g Pursanova water holding tank (not shown), the four tube RO unit, the 15gal tank holding the descaler mixture, an electrical panel, a recirculating pump, another Pursanova disc, and two Pursanova 40" structure tubes mounted on the trailer wall. The RO unit is very sensitive, needing water immediately when called for. A float controlled supply tank is preferred over a direct connection to a hose bib. There are a total of four large blue filters, each with a different function. The users I contacted, stated that when leaving the unit idle for lengthy periods of time, they ran Pursanova water through the system and left it full. They found leaving the unit idle with the treated water lengthened the life of the RO membranes. Our unit requires ≥10gpm water supply and 220V electrical service. This size unit produces ~4-5gpm of Pursanova water and wastes ~3-4gpm for a daily total of around 5500-7000 gal/day of treated water. The RO unit has a water recycling capability that brings the efficiency up to about 65-75%, to lower waste, but we found the feature quickly fouled the RO membranes. Sufficient supply of Pursanova water will probably require additional storage tanks. Minimize Pursanova water contact with metal. Store in plastic. Stainless steel is not as bad as iron. How long you can store "structured" water without providing some circulation is a moving number. Two years ago we were told 2 weeks, then 2 months, and I recently heard that the "structure" could be maintained for 5 months, and maybe indefinitely. Stay tuned!
2022 Experience:
2022 started out looking a lot like 2021, --short on moisture and the prospect of high summer temperatures over a lengthy time. We knew we needed to cut costs in expectation of another year of disappointing yields. In February, 2020, when our Bio group started looking into the Pursanova technology, we were warned to reduce our chemistry rate 35% to avoid damage to the crop. That seemed a bit far fetched at the time. However, our experience in the fall of 2021 with reduced rates of glyphosate was encouraging. All of our 2022 applications of chemical or fertilizer, had Pursanova water used as the carrier. The McGregor Company is our main supplier of crop inputs, and we pay them for agronomy services. In 2022, for most chemical applications, we took McGregor's recommendation, and cut it in half. We were gambling that our fields were clean enough that we could survive one year if the concept proved wrong. There were three exceptions; (1)- Imazamox (Beyond) for goatgrass control in winter wheat. We did a test area at half rate with Pursanova water, but the remainder of the field was at full label rate with well water (2)- Paraquat (Solera) application was used at the full label rate and 25gpa water, and (3)- Pyroxasulfone (Anthem Flex) soil application for grassy weed control in fall seeded winter wheat. We intended, but didn't make any foliar applications, other than adding fertilizer to our normal spring chemical application. Pursanova water was used for fertilizer dilution that went through the drill. As the year progressed we tweeked the adjuvants used with the various chemistries. Glyphosate was our main target chemistry, and Rattail Fescue was our main target weed.
RESULTS: We had no disasters, and no chemical messes from the Pursanova water. Chemical efficacy appeared as good, and I think better in most areas, with the half rate used in the crops. With goat grass, imazamox has been a disappointment in the past, and was again, both, half rate using Pursanova water, and full rate with well water. Paraquat was very good. It took all the color out of volunteer canola quickly, --much better than in the past with well water. We messed up by not putting out a strip at half rate with half the water. Rattail Fescue has become an issue on a couple of fields. Rattail blew up on us this year. We decided too use a new tactic, --applying multiple low rate applications in our fallow fields using Rt3@12oz & 10gpa along with one pound of granulated sugar/ac and 1oz/ac of McGregor's "conform" adjuvant. The first application looked very good, except in the extremely dense patches where a scattering of sickly green areas remained after ~2wks. This prompted a second application, --this looked really dead; except we could find a few tiny scattered pale green leaves in those dense patches, which prompted a third application in those areas. We could find no hint of green following the third application. We ended up with ~36oz/a of Rt3 over a ~8wk period, but the rattail appeared dead. We will know by this coming fall, after harvest, how successful we were. In the past we have used 20-32oz Rt3 with a full load of recommended adjuvants and 12-15gpa of well water, and only got to the "mostly dead looking phase". With the Pursanova water, we have moved away from all adjuvant type chemistry and replaced them with one pound of white granulated sugar per acre and either one or two ounces per acre of "conform" depending on how droughty the weeds appear. Conform is used primarily for drift control at 7-11oz/ac, but we are seeing it as an excellent spreader at 1-2oz/ac when using the Pursanova water. For equipment, we are making our spray applications with Pentair's GuardianAir Twin jet nozzles, and like them very much. Earlier, we were using TeeJet Turbo TwinJet nozzles. Next year we are going to look at lower rates of application, --less than half the chemical rate and less than 10gpa total solution. I see no reason to change the sugar-conform rates. It's cheap and appears effective at this point in time.
To keep this momentum, and maintain or increase the value of the Pursanova water, we will have to up our game of soil health and no-till practices: --reduced disturbance, soil cover, soil sanitation, crop rotation, diverse species, and keeping a living root in the ground longer. Some of these we are currently doing, some we are not. Assuming these gains are permanent and slacking off these principles could prove detrimental.
CONCLUSION: This has been a fantastic year for our operation. Besides the good yields and reasonable commodity prices, we had a significant cost reduction of crop inputs. We are seeing results that we never expected to see in my lifetime. The Pursanova technology is, I think, another step to advance us down the road to yield parity with lower inputs, and improving soil health. We have used the Pursanova water with all our fertilizer applications, but I don't have any commentary at this point in time. From reading the books mentioned below, we gained a rudimentary understanding of some of the mechanism that may be allowing us to reduce chemistry. The same forces will probably allow more efficient use of fertilizer, both foliar and root uptake. I hope to address this in a year or two with some antidotal material to report.
I don't understand WATER. University of Washington professor Gerald Pollock's book and videos on "Exclusionary Zone (EZ) Water" is a great read and introduces one to the fact that there is more to water than meets the eye. Yang OH and Gil Ho Kim's book the "Miracle Molecular Structure of Water" was a difficult read for me, but reenforces the fact that there is more to water than meets the eye. Vatche' Keuftedjian's website <www.pursanova.com > has a lot of interesting information (when you work your way through the sales portion of the website).
I will conclude this post by stating that I am very pleased with the purchase of the Pursanova system. It has been the best ROI (<8m) of any equipment I have purchased in my farming career.
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