Independent notes for ecological growersResearch edition September 2026
← Water & tunnelsThe field workbench / Worksheet 02

From millimetres
to minutes.

Translate a chosen depth over a defined bed area into litres and arithmetic runtime. This is a unit-conversion tool—not an irrigation prescription.

Replace the teaching example

Use the whole zone’s measured flow, not one emitter’s rating. Bed area excludes paths. The chosen depth applies to the full rectangular bed area, not just wet patches under emitters.

01 / Transparent arithmetic

One millimetre.
One square metre.
One litre.

Area = bed length × bed width × bed count. Volume in litres = area in m² × depth in mm. Time in minutes = litres ÷ total flow in L/min. SI conversion is exact; your measurements and chosen depth may not be.

02 / What it leaves out

The crop still
needs a decision.

No crop demand, rainfall, soil storage, wetted fraction, runoff, drainage, evaporation or distribution loss is estimated here. Flow is assumed constant. Do not use the output as an automatic irrigation instruction.

Before using the number

Check the ground truth.

Follow the water reading path ↗