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14.5.3: Organic Materials

  • Page ID
    44692
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    Algae and slime created by bacteria can cause severe clogging. Algae is common in almost all surface waters. Small pieces of algae can pass through filters and grow inside a microirrigation system. Since sunlight is required for algae to grow, light must be prevented from entering the system.

    Slime is a general term for long filament microorganisms produced primarily by bacteria. The slime acts as a “glue” for suspended particles to combine into larger particles that plug emitters. The more common microorganisms that result in slime problems are airborne, thus, systems using open water supplies are susceptible.

    Both algae and slime can be controlled by chlorination. Maintaining a residual chlorine concentration of 1.0 ppm, measured at the far end of the system, usually prevents problems from organic materials. An alternative practice is to inject sufficient chlorine to bring the concentration in the irrigation system to between 10 and 20 ppm during the last 20 minutes of the irrigation cycle.


    14.5.3: Organic Materials is shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.