#HydroTip: Advanced Irrigation Timing. Most growers who use an irrigation system in their garden will use either a digital or mechanical timer to operate the pumps. While these serve a purpose, they can be fiddly to set and have limited options in regards to operation times. Digital timers can be set for a minimum of one minute intervals and mechanical timers a minimum of 15 minutes. They will work, but they wont provide the truly accurate feeding regime that makes plants thrive. Plants can receive too little or too much upon each watering, and should you suffer a power cut, then these timers will need to be adjusted or reset to coincide with your lighting cycle. The best way to ensure your plants have the very best feeding regime, all day every day, is to use a Nutrimatic Drip Irrigation Timer. This pre-programmed timer has two operating schedules: 18/6 & 12/12 (selected by a small switch), so theres no complicated set-up issues. Both programs will operate the pump 20 times per cycle; feeding more frequently for the first part of the cycle when the plants have/require a higher uptake, and less frequently as the day moves on and plant uptake slows down. This delivers feed to your plants just the way they want it; this flexibility is not achievable with other types of timers. After you’ve chosen which program to use, the only other thing to do is set the number of seconds you want the pump to switch on for. This can be anywhere between 1-99 seconds and is set using a simple up/down switch. We recommend starting with around 3 seconds for small plants and gradually increasing this time as the plants get bigger and establish themselves in the system. At this point the timer should be set to operate long enough that you achieve a run-off of around 30%. (Minor adjustments are easy to make by flicking the Seconds switch up or down.) By feeding the plants smaller amounts but more frequently and keeping run-off to around 30%, you will prevent over watering, ensure a good balance of nutrient and oxygen around the plants roots, and prevent residual salts from building up in the growing medium and causing over-fertilization issues. All of these things will significantly improve growth rates. Finally, as the Nutrimatic Drip Irrigation Timer is connected through the same circuit as your lighting, there is no reset necessary should you have a power cut. Make the change and see what a difference this amazing piece of kit makes! progrow.co.uk/acatalog/info_4937.html #Hydroponics #Coco #Rockwool #Soil #DripperSystem #SMSCOM #Nutrimatic #Timer #Irrigation #Feeding
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 17:56:19 +0000
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