Renewable Farming

Another way to save money on ag chemical costs: It’s the water

For several years we’ve heard farmers report that they’ve been able to reduce herbicide rates and maintain effective control — if they start the spray solution with clean, “energized” water. The most common technology among the farmers we know is the Pursanova water activation tube. It flows water past energized natural ores. You can read the details at the Pursanova website.
 
Today, Pursanova founder Vatché Kuftedjian sent an e-mail to his clients with one more farmer commentary on herbicide savings by including the Pursanova energizing system. 
 
First, here’s Vatché’s initial message, followed by the e-mail report which he had received from one of his clients, Keith Sexton.  Keith also happens to be one of our WakeUP clients.
 
I wanted to share with you an email I received from one of our wonderful customers from Iowa. Keith Sexton used to use his reverse osmosis machine to produce his product water to mix his additives.
 
Then, Keith included Pursanova Technology in his practices, which included the NEW PN-60 and the Pursanova Disk (aka Merus Rings in Europe).
 
Please read his feedback after he utilized everything he purchased from us in his farm operations. I am thankful and grateful to Keith Sexton for taking the time to share his experience with all of us. I hope this is helpful to everyone.
 

And this is Keith’s report. He sent comments about the Pursanova system to Vatché a couple of days earlier.  We asked Keith if it’s OK for us to post his comments and he said that’s fine. Here’s the report he sent us for posting on our website. It contains some additional information about his use of WakeUP in the program:

Erik and Jerry –

This brief note is to let you know how I got along this summer after installing some water treatment components for my spray water and where WakeUP fit into the system.

My well water has a hardness rating of 1100 mg/L and TDS of 1600 mg/L.  That water went through a water softener, Pursanova 5 micron sediment and 5 micron carbon block filters, a Pursanova restructuring tube (which I think of as giving water a “babbling brook” type of energy) and an older Empro reverse osmosis machine. After going through the RO filter it was discharged into a holding tank where it was recirculated a few times prior to using through another, slightly different tube and a Pursanova disk that emits oscillations to adjust some aspects of the water. Just like taking an ibuprofen without knowing exactly how it relieves a headache, I honestly do not know how the Pursanova tubes and disks do their thing. But based on conversations with others who have used Pursanova components, I overcame the sticker shock and decided to make the investment.

After trying various rates of herbicides and adjuvants, I concluded that by using a 2/3 rate of pesticide and 1/2 rate of your company’s WakeUp Summer, I  feel the same result was achieved as if I had used a full rate of pesticide and recommended adjuvants. With foliar fertilizers, it is difficult to see a visual effect and even more difficult to determine an optimal rate. So I am using ½ – ¾ rate of fertilizers and enough WakeUp Summer to gloss the leaves – usually about 3 ½ oz. I do not apply very much starter fertilizer; but when I do I use treated water as the carrier.

It appears that with the water treatments, there is no need for the adjuvants that are recommended to mitigate the undesirable aspects of typical spray water. It also seems as though the plants absorb the treated water easier and a full rate of adjuvants that help the active ingredients work better (including WakeUp Summer) causes excessive leaf burn which I believe not only temporarily reduce photosynthetic activity of the desirable crops, but also may burn the leaves of the weeds before all the pesticide is absorbed.

I ended up selecting WakeUp Summer as my preferred adjuvant because I like that it is a plant based product rather than petroleum based and just seems to do the job at ½ the recommended normal rate.

I appreciate the appreciate the service I receive from Renewable Farming, LLC, and also your willingness to share results of field trials you have conducted. Feel free to share my experience with other users and potential customers.

Best wishes,  Keith Sexton, Rockwell City, IA  

Other growers using this sequence of reverse osmosis and Pursanova energizing for several seasons report that with the Pursanova and WakeUP combination, they’ve also been able to either reduce herbicide rates toward the lower end of label recommendations, or gain more effective weed control. Herbicide effectiveness is getting more difficult to achieve, and this isn’t just with glyphosate-based herbicides which encounter weed “resistance.” We’re hearing (and seeing among our clients) reduced residual control or systemic effectiveness of postmerge herbicides. This may be a signal that weeds are developing resistance to some of those modes of action too.

Pursanova water treatment tube

We’ve used one of the original Pursanova tubes (see nearby photo) for our farm and home water for several years. It replaced our water softener system, and paid for itself just in savings of softener salt. Besides that, we’ve learned from other sources that removing excessive sodium from our drinking and bathing water helps maintain cell health. Salt can invade cell interiors and replace potassium, which is vital to cell metabolism.

The Pursanova Disk which Keith mentions is a relative newcomer to the Pursanova water treatment arsenal. It works in tandem with the energizing effect of the Pursanova PN-60 tube.   Here’s a photo of the disk. It comes in two halves; you use a size which fits your particular water pipe. Sizes range from normal residential water pipes to large industrial pipes such as those in refineries and irrigation systems.

Pursanova disk