Vineyard Irrigation Water Treatment
Iron, manganese and sludge out of your irrigation dam or tank before they reach the drippers. Built around Western Cape wine farms.
Free grapevine water checks
Scan your Vinlab, Bemlab or any lab report on your phone. Our free irrigation tool checks salinity, chloride, SAR and dripper clogging risk against grapevine limits.
1. Blocked drip emitters
Dissolved iron and manganese oxidise inside the lines and drippers, leaving rust-brown and black deposits and iron-bacteria slime. Blocks spread unevenly, so some vines go short.
| Clogging risk | Iron | Manganese |
|---|---|---|
| Minor | < 0.1 mg/L | < 0.1 mg/L |
| Moderate | 0.1–1.5 mg/L | 0.1–1.5 mg/L |
| Severe | > 1.5 mg/L | > 1.5 mg/L |
Drip clogging hazard after Nakayama (1982), as used in FAO Irrigation & Drainage Paper 29.
NanoJet™ helps: it oxidises iron and manganese in the dam or tank, so they settle or are filtered out before the water enters the lines.
2. Salinity and chloride
Grapevines are moderately sensitive to salt. How much chloride a block can take depends heavily on the rootstock: salt-tolerant stocks such as Ramsey handle far more than own-rooted vines.
- Our free irrigation tool checks EC and chloride against grapevine limits for your rootstock
- It also calculates SAR and flags sodicity risk
Honest note: NanoJet™ does not remove salt. High salinity is managed with blending, leaching or reverse osmosis, and the tool shows you whether you have a problem before you spend money on one.
3. Stagnant dams and tanks
Still water in a farm dam stratifies. The bottom goes anaerobic, sludge builds up, and you get hydrogen sulphide, algae and slime feeding into the pump intake.
- Keeps the water body circulating and oxygen-rich
- Strips hydrogen sulphide and CO₂
- Lifts sludge towards your filter instead of letting it rot on the floor
NanoJet™ helps: this is exactly what it is built for.
How It Fits Your Irrigation System
- Dam, borehole or storage tank. NanoJet™ aerates and circulates the stored water.
- Oxidation. Dissolved iron and manganese turn into particles. Iron needs a pH of about 7.2–7.5 or higher, manganese about 7.2–8.5. NanoJet™ lifts pH by around 1 point by stripping CO₂; acidic water needs pH correction first.
- Settle or filter. Particles settle in the dam or are caught by your sand or media filter ahead of the drippers.
- Clean water to the block. Fewer blocked emitters and more even water across the vineyard.
In our 2025 field trial on a shallow Western Cape wellpoint, iron dropped from 6.2 to 1.1 mg/L after NanoJet™ and to below 0.10 mg/L after filtration. Results depend on pH, oxidation time and your filter, so test your water first.
Sizing for Wine Farms
Storage tanks up to 10,000 L
A single CYCLONE™ Standard Kit covers 5,000–10,000 L. Smaller tanks: FUSION™ (2,500–5,000 L) or VORTEX™ (1,000–2,500 L).
Farm dams and reservoirs
Larger volumes use several reactors spaced around the water body, sized to your dam's volume, depth and pump rate. See how reactor arrays circulate a basin →
Cellar and winery water
Process water in and effluent out are a different job from irrigation. See our food & beverage page, with a lab test builder →
Every NanoJet™ comes with a 2-year warranty. Other crops or livestock? See NanoJet™ for agriculture →
Free Water Analysis App for Wine Farmers
Photograph your lab report and get an instant grapevine check: chloride limits by rootstock, salinity and yield-loss estimate, SAR, and dripper clogging risk. The free tool covers DWAF irrigation guidelines; CWT Pro adds checks for your variety and rootstock, with a PDF report.
Wine farmers: ask us about a free month of CWT Pro (offer open until 30 November 2026).
Talk to Us About Your Farm
Send us your water source, your dam or tank size and roughly how many hectares are under drip. A recent lab report helps us size it properly.