Agricultural Irrigation System Design Capacity for Washington.

Irrigation Systems need to be designed so that they can keep up with crop water use. But over-designing them increases piping and material costs, and it especially increases filtration, pump, and pumping energy costs. Different crops use different amounts of water in different areas of the state. Deep rooted crops in soils with large water-holding capacities can rely on stored soil moisture when it is hot and windy, while shallow rooted crops in sandier soils need irrigation systems that can keep up when it is hot. If an irrigation system can barely keep up and something breaks, it is not able to catch up. All these things need to be considered. This is a tool to help.