JAMIESON, Ore. — Corey Maag’s mid-1990s shift to drip irrigation made him an early adopter of the method now common in the sizable southeast Oregon/southwest Idaho onion growing region.

“We kind of had to do it through the drought years because there were years we didn’t have water past the end of June” using furrow irrigation, Maag said.

The onion grower and packer-shipper found that with drip, he could grow nearly twice as many acres with the same amount of water compared to using furrow irrigation.

In a drip system, small diameter pipelines deliver water to the root zone through low-pressure, low volume devices placed on, or slightly above or below, the ground, according to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Delivery devices include drip tape, emitters, micro sprayers and bubblers.

Onion growers in southeast Oregon and southwest Idaho saved water by using drip irrigation and the method opened new ground.

“You look at some of that rolling terrain outside Parma, or between Ontario and Caldwell, none of that could be furrow irrigated,” said Stuart Reitz, director of the Oregon State University Malheur Experiment Station south of Ontario, Ore. Parma and Caldwell are in Idaho.

“So drip has opened a lot of opportunities to grow onions in places where you couldn’t have grown them before,” Reitz said. “It definitely has added to the industry” in acres and efficiency.

Around 80% of the crop in the region is drip irrigated, he said. “There are some fields where growers can do as well (economically) with furrow, so those probably won’t convert.”

Drip irrigation “gives farmers the ability to access a wider variety of fields” such as those with elevation changes or undulations, said Corby Garrett, co-owner of Aqua Irrigation Technologies in Parma.

“It’s been incredible how fast the conversion has been and the vast majority of onions are now produced with drip irrigation,” said Bruce Corn, who farms between Ontario and Nyssa, Ore.

Drip represents “significantly more than half, probably about 80%,” of onion irrigation in the area, Corn said. Benefits include using less fertilizer and reducing disease pressure as water is applied evenly and stays near the application point longer.

Near Parma, Jarom Jemmett and partners have fields suitable for furrow irrigation but instead use drip on onions as well as carrot seed.

“Just for water (efficiency) and soil erosion control, we, and a lot of our neighbors, choose to use drip,” Jemmett said.

Depending on the crop year and rotations, “there are some guys with a nice laser-leveled field who will still furrow irrigate,” said Jeff Aldred, sales manager with Clearwater Supply in Ontario.

But drip irrigation of onions is growing as some longtime furrow irrigators scale back and as acres change hands, he said.

Another growth factor is larger drip projects, which can be expanded by connecting a nearby field to an existing system, Aldred said.

Some growers are moving away from using portable stations — placed and removed each year — and instead opting for a permanent, central station that pipes water to different fields, Garrett said. The permanent station has a slightly higher initial cost but saves labor in the long run.

Using drip irrigation to help reduce labor and increase crop quality is a trend along with increased interest in taking advantage of advancements in tape recycling, he said.

“Most guys who have done drip, they’ve got to learn from experience,” Maag said. Initial challenges can include cost and learning a new way to manage water and optimize volumes for best crop quality.