Contents
Inside the greenhouses, plants live in a special microclimate formed by a closed space isolated from the external environment. The future harvest largely depends on how optimal it is for seedlings, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, onions, cucumbers, zucchini, melons, etc. conditions will be created. After all, many plants are quite capricious – just at least something is wrong and the foliage withers, constellations fall, various diseases appear.
Description
Maintaining acceptable conditions in the greenhouse manually is quite troublesome and time-consuming. Therefore, to help gardeners, a lot of devices and devices that facilitate and optimize this work have been created.
One of the important points in growing greenhouse plants is soil moisture. You can, of course, without further ado, do it with a good old watering can or irrigate the beds with a spray hose. However, today there is a more optimized way – a micro-drip irrigation system. The essence of micro-drop irrigation is that the entire soil in the greenhouse is not irrigated with water, but moisture is delivered directly to the roots of plants in small portions, that is, drops. At the same time, the amount of water is selected for each plant individually, according to its needs.
Such a greenhouse humidification system avoids the spread of diseases caused by fungi, since there is no excess moisture and the leaves remain dry. A crust does not form on the surface of the soil, so the access of oxygen to the roots does not stop for a moment. Also, fruits rot much less often and much fewer weeds appear. Such watering can be combined with top dressing.
In addition, the use of micro-drip irrigation allows for a 50% – 70% reduction in water consumption compared to greenhouse irrigation using traditional methods. Among other things, for proper functioning, such a system does not require the provision of strong water pressure, which is especially important in the realities existing in our suburban areas.
Manufacturers quite often sell a ready-made set of parts, fixtures and devices for organizing the supply of water to a certain number of plants in the greenhouse. Buyers especially liked the German Gardena system and the Belarusian AquaDusya. Both the one and the other set provide for the connection of control devices, thanks to which automatic operation of micro-drip irrigation becomes possible. At the same time, greenhouses will be irrigated at programmed intervals, which allows plants to be left unattended for a long period.
All components for drip humidification produced under the Gardena brand are a single Micro-Drip-System, the components of which are interchangeable. That is, if the purchased kit does not contain any device required for organizing watering, it can always be taken from another kit or purchased separately.
Gardena’s Micro-Drip-System basic kit includes all the basic tools and devices for organizing optimal soil moisture in small greenhouses up to 10 square meters. It contains a 15 m long main hose, a 10 m thinner supply hose and pegs to fix it, 15 pcs. special droppers for individual irrigation of plants and 6 pcs. water-spraying micro nozzles, a set of fittings (connectors, adapters, taps, plugs), a master block for connecting to a water source and a Gardena universal tool for assembly.
The Gardena kit for larger greenhouses provides the gardener with a 25 meter supply hose and a set of drippers, which will allow organizing individual root irrigation for up to 40 plants. Also, if desired, you can purchase and install additional droppers on the main hose or a universal dispenser for feeding plants in a greenhouse.
Thanks to Gardena’s patented Quick&Easy technology, all components can be connected into a single irrigation line and disassembled quite quickly. To attach droppers and micro-nozzles, a universal tool with a durable metal blade for making holes in the main hose helps. An additional timer setting allows you to organize watering offline in the greenhouse.
AquaDusya micro-drip irrigation system consists of 80 pcs. droppers for batch water supply to plants in the greenhouse, main and supply hoses, which are cut into pieces of the required length, a set of fittings (tee connectors), hose holders, a pump unit that provides water supply from a container and a control controller.
Unlike the Gardena Micro-Drip-System, the AquaDusya kit does not imply the expansion of functionality due to separate additional devices and parts. In contrast to many other systems of this type, AquaDusya provides for the intake of water for watering plants in the greenhouse from a tank, and not directly from the water supply.
That is, the AquaDusya irrigation system moistens the soil at the roots not with cold, but with warm water, which has a very good effect on the development of plants and the yield obtained in the greenhouse. The selected container will only need to be installed at a height of about one and a half meters above the ground. It should be noted that the pumps included in the kit are not afraid of “dry running” and nothing will happen to them if the water in the tank is exhausted.
The controller included in the set of AquaDusya components provides automatic water supply from the tank to the irrigation line of the greenhouses. For the operation of automation, ordinary batteries are sufficient and no connection to the mains is required.
Video “Micro-drip irrigation from Gardena”
Principle of operation
Since the micro-drop irrigation system is designed to supply a certain amount of moisture directly to the roots of plants, its operation is based on the use of special devices for metered water supply. Basically, these are special droppers that are installed in the root region.
At the same time, the flow rate of the supplied water is regulated individually, that is, each plant in the greenhouse receives its portion during irrigation. To moisten particularly delicate plants or plants located close to each other (for example, seedlings), Gardena has developed micro-nozzles that spray water over a small area.
The drippers and micro-nozzles are supplied with water through thin, flexible, pegged supply hoses, which, in turn, are connected to a larger main hose. Also, droppers can be screwed directly into the main hose lying between the rows of plants in the greenhouse. Droppers, micro-nozzles and hoses combined into a single line are connected to a water source.
The Gardena dropper cuts into the supply hose, that is, it goes before and after it. The number of droppers required at the site at different distances is placed on one hose. The droppers included in the AquaDusya kit are inserted into the end of the hose. Therefore, a separate supply hose is suitable for each plant. They diverge on both sides of the main, forming a kind of Christmas tree.
How the system as a whole works
Gardena developers provide for connection via a master block to a water supply system or special water sockets (hydrants) at an underground location on the main pipeline section to ensure water supply to various irrigation systems. The master block filters the incoming water and reduces its pressure to a working value of about 1.5 bar. In addition to it, it is possible to install other devices, thanks to which automation of the irrigation of greenhouses is ensured.
The AquaDusya system provides for the supply of water for irrigation from a special container to the main hose. This is done so that the plants are watered not with cold, but with warm water. The operation is controlled by the controller. Depending on its model, it is possible to implement a fully automatic mode, when the automation regulates the water supply both to the hoses for irrigation of greenhouses and to the barrel from the water supply. Also, the AquaDusya system can operate in a semi-automatic mode, when the barrel has to be filled on its own.
Video “How the Gardena irrigation system works”
To understand the principle of operation and purpose of this system, we advise you to familiarize yourself with this video clip.
