grower 101
Six Ways to Automate Irrigation
There are many ways to automate the watering process in commercial greenhouses. Here’s a look at how professional growers do it.
By John Rowe
When a machine runs irrigation, plants receive a consistent amount of water, which makes the crop much more uniform. Irrigation consistency also reduces the amount of plant loss caused by stress induced by delivering an inconsistent amount of water or fertilizer. Larger growers have been among the fi rst to
T
Close-up of a turret head nozzle
26 GPN May 2010
adopt these methods because of the capital costs, but small- to medium-sized growers also are realizing opportunities to automate on a tight budget. For example,
in a typical 30x96-foot
greenhouse, basic overhead irrigation can be installed for as little as $325. That’s certainly not a budget limited to big growers. This inexpen- sive entry investment allows growers more free time while machines take care of their plants. Even at that cost, a smart grower would run
the numbers to determine whether the system made fi nancial sense for him. Applying 1 inch of water to that typical greenhouse requires 1,795 gallons of water, which would take 4.3 hours using a nozzle with a typical 7 gallons per minute output — assuming perfect labor effi ciency. At minimum wage, that’s $36 per watering, so the
Boom systems provide quicker rooting, more uniform growth and less crop loss thanks to the control of water delivery. (Photos: McConkey Co.)
he industry’s most reliably successful growers are increasingly automating their irrigation systems for the sig- nifi cant improvements it makes to both their effi ciency and crop quality.
$325 investment is recouped in nine waterings. Run the numbers for your own operation to see how the economics work for you. There are six ways to irrigate your green-
house, but choosing the wrong system for your operation and crops can lead to big issues. Use the following guide, compiled by the experts at McConkey Company, to help you choose. Each of these irrigation methods are a delivery
mechanism for water, but they still require a cor- responding controller to regulate when and how much to water. Controllers can be as simple as $45 units that switch on the system at certain times of the day and as advanced as units that sense solar heat, air humidity and soil moisture.
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Drip Systems for Hanging Baskets
Drip systems are intravenous tubes feeding
directly to each emitter from a main supply line running the length of the bay. Hanging baskets are one of the fi rst crops growers choose to auto- mate with drip irrigation. Drip systems help reduce disease by keeping plants’ foliage dry. With this system, the drippers turn on and off in unison, even if the greenhouse is sloped or the lines are uneven. The drip emitters are pres- sure compensated so the entire line of hanging baskets will be irrigated with equal amounts of
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