Almond Irrigation Systems
Why almond growers need precision irrigation
Almonds are a long-season, high-investment crop with a deep root zone and high water demand. Getting irrigation right at key stages, such as hull split, is one of the most important calls a grower makes each year, and doing it by fixed schedule leaves water, energy and money on the table.
In California, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and rising water and energy costs have made efficiency a business necessity, not just good practice. Precision irrigation lets you document and reduce water use while keeping the orchard on a sound watering strategy.
Automate your almond irrigation with WiseConn
WiseConn brings field hardware and the DropControl platform together into a single system for managing irrigation across your whole operation. Rugged field nodes monitor and control the orchard, while DropControl gives you a web dashboard and a mobile app to manage it from anywhere.
How it works
• Field nodes collect soil moisture, weather and system data and send it over into DropControl to help make better informed decisions
• Data flows to the cloud and is available in real time through the DropControl web platform and mobile app.
• You define irrigation rules and schedules, and the system runs them automatically, opening and closing valves block by block.
• Three roles, one platform: irrigators run day-to-day watering from the mobile app, farm managers make decisions and report from the web, and owners track water use and sustainability.
What growers gain
| Benefit | What it means for your orchard |
|---|---|
| Water savings | Schedule irrigation from real soil moisture and evapotranspiration data instead of a fixed calendar, reducing water use by 20 to 60 percent depending on your starting point. |
| Energy savings | In California, energy is often priced differently through the day. WiseConn lets you pump when it is cheapest and only when the orchard needs it. |
| Labor savings | Automate valve operation across large almond blocks and run the operation with a small supervising team instead of crews opening valves by hand. |
| Better use of fertilizer | Keep fertigation in the root zone with precise water control, improving nutrient efficiency across the orchard. |
Note: WiseConn does not claim to increase yield or fruit size, since those depend on many factors beyond irrigation. The value is in water, energy, labor and fertilizer efficiency, plus full operational control.
Built to integrate, not replace
WiseConn is designed to work with what you already have. DropControl uses an open architecture, so it connects to the soil moisture probes, weather stations and field sensors you already run, and links to satellite imagery and external platforms through an open API. If you have already invested in sensors or a specific irrigation method, you keep using it and gain a single control layer on top, instead of being locked into a closed ecosystem.
Integrated sensor brands include, among others:
• Soil moisture probes: Sentek, Meter Group (Teros and PHYTOS), CropX, AquaFlex and Enviropro.
• Weather stations and field monitoring: Davis Instruments and iMetOS.
Water compliance and sustainability
DropControl gives owners and managers a clear record of how much water is applied across the operation, which supports groundwater reporting and sustainability goals. You can show, with data, how efficiently the orchard uses water, an increasingly important point for owners and investors in California.
Pricing and return on investment
Almond is a high-value crop, and an irrigation upgrade pays for itself through the water, energy, labor and fertilizer it saves. There is no single price, because every project is quoted to fit your operation: field size, number of irrigation sectors, the valves you want to control and the sensors you integrate all shape the final figure.
As a guide, projects typically start at around USD 10,000 and reach payback within one to two years. The DropControl platform runs on an annual subscription per node, with a limited free version available, so you can match the investment to the size and ambition of your operation. *Value based for a base 40 acres operation
Trusted by growers worldwide
More than 3,000 growers use DropControl every day to manage irrigation across thousands of fields around the world, including high-value orchards across California and other major almond regions.
Chuck Dirkse
La Mancha Orchards
La Mancha Farms has been in the almond production business for many years, cultivating 200 acres of high-quality almonds. Chuck Dirkse, farmer and owner, has been deeply involved in every aspect of the farm's operations. By integrating WiseConn’s technology, Chuck has seen a significant shift in how he manages his farm, from daily irrigation to responding to environmental changes with ease.
Frequently Asked Questions
Request a quote
Ready to bring precision irrigation to your almond operation? Talk to a WiseConn specialist and get a quote tailored to your operation. WiseConn solutions are delivered and installed through a certified distributor network, so you get local support from day one.
