Wikipedia
In agriculture, subirrigation, also known as seepage irrigation, is a method of irrigation where water is delivered to the plant root zone from below the soil surface and absorbed upwards. The excess may be collected for reuse.
Subirrigation is used in growing field crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and sugar cane in areas with high water tables such as Florida and in commercial greenhouse operations.
Three basic types of subirrigation system are in general use for potted plants in greenhouses: ebb-and-flow ( bench-mounted enclosures holding pots are filled and then drained); trough (water is flowed through bench-mounted, slightly sloping enclosures containing pots); and flooded floor (special sloped concrete flooring is flooded and drained).
Greenhouse subirrigation has been growing in popularity since the 1990s. Advantages are water and nutrient conservation, and labor-saving. The outfitting cost is relatively high. Potential problems, such as the possibility of increased presence of disease in recycle water, have only begun to be investigated.
Usage examples of "subirrigation".
In this place there must be some subirrigation from underground springs in the low hills before him, and in these hills Barda must surely be a prisoner.
Between us and the buildings, which suggested a small walled city, the clearing contained a few scattered trees, but most of the ground was given over to cultivation, being traversed by irrigation ditches of an archaic type which has been abandoned upon the surface for many ages, having been superseded by a system of subirrigation when the diminishing water supply necessitated the adoption of conservation measures.