The subtleties of the automatic irrigation device in the greenhouse

Growing vegetables in your garden - what could be better, fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden taste completely different compared to store ones. As a rule, all this is grown in greenhouses. And all this splendor needs care, and most importantly - watering. How to carry out automatic watering in a greenhouse will be discussed in the article.

Caring for the garden takes too much effort, sometimes people simply do not have the opportunity to visit their garden plot with the necessary frequency for regular maintenance. Therefore, more and more often you can see various automatic irrigation systems in greenhouses. Once invested in such a system, you can enjoy several years of its trouble-free operation.

Having planned an autowatering system on your site, you need to choose the optimal design directly for your case, and then its use will become useful and pleasant for you.

Here are some selection criteria that you need to decide on during the planning stage of the system:

• evaluate your financial capabilities - you can make an automatic system with your own hands, spending quite a bit of effort and money on it, or you can just buy a ready-made one;
• decide where exactly the watering will be carried out, and for the cultivation of which plants you will use it;

• the correct calculation of the pump power is not an easy task, which depends on a huge number of factors, such as the type of landscape, distance from the water source, the number of plants watered;
• you need to plan a water filter at the entrance to the system, this will ensure long-term uninterrupted operation of autowatering for several years.

Now about the main thing: the range of irrigation systems is very abundant today, let's try to understand their main types.

Another name for this system is spot irrigation. Most often, you can find this type of autowatering on the scale of small garden plots. The main advantage of this type of system is its low cost. Water with a small pressure is supplied through hoses from an autonomous structure (a tank filled, for example, from a well) and through droppers goes directly to the roots of plants.

Another advantage of this irrigation system is that due to the slow and even wetting of the soil, the soil at the roots is always kept moist and never dries up. Another advantage: the plant gets the whole water, but the weeds don't, which is usually inevitable with ordinary watering from a watering can.

There are two options for providing a drip system: either you make holes yourself and fit the droppers, or it is easier, you can purchase a special hose, inside it is a special capillary labyrinth that slows down the flow of water and leaves it drop by drop. This device is called drip tape.

One of the types of drip irrigation is micro-irrigation. It is characterized by low water consumption (achieved by microscopic drops) and is most often used in mini-greenhouses on city balconies, for flowers in pots or in winter gardens.

This irrigation method mimics the natural environment where the plants are watered with raindrops. In this case, moisture absorption occurs not only by the roots of the crops you planted, but also by the surface of the leaves. An additional advantage of this system is that high humidity forms in the greenhouse, which is especially important for cucumbers, for example. But weeds also love this microclimate.

In terms of structure, irrigation of this type is similar to drip irrigation with one difference - the supply hoses are located under the soil layer. Underground irrigation has an important advantage - the ground on the surface does not get wet, which means that a hard crust does not form, which must be regularly loosened. On the other hand, this type of irrigation system also has the disadvantage that the holes for the water inlet are often clogged.

Now let's look at the main types of materials that can be used in the design of an automatic irrigation system.

• Metal pipes. Strong and durable material, but with many disadvantages. For example, susceptibility to corrosion, the laborious process of installing such pipes, which is practically inaccessible to a common man in the street, and, accordingly, the involvement of a specialist is required, which further increases the cost of such a project. Additional accessories for metal pipes, such as fittings and taps, are quite expensive.

• PVC pipes. Otherwise - PVC pipes. They are the toughest of all products based on polymer materials. The ability to withstand temperature fluctuations, unprecedented resistance to external influences, increased strength are the main advantages of this material. They are used both for the ground irrigation system and for the subsoil irrigation system. It is very easy to connect PVC pipes to each other, this process does not require any special skills, it is performed using specialized adhesives and fittings.

• Polyethylene pipes. This material is elastic, which is especially important during the cold season, when there is a possibility of water freezing in the pipes, because if such an incident occurs, the pipes can simply burst. Polyethylene pipes are protected from this nuisance. Installation requires a special skill of socket welding, which is easy to master.
• Polypropylene pipes. They are very similar in properties to polyethylene, but are a more economical option. They can withstand high pressure, do not corrode, are lightweight, resistant to chemicals, do not break. They are connected by socket welding, like polyethylene pipes.

All of the above materials, of course, relate to the professional installation of durable automatic irrigation systems, which, although you can assemble it yourself, are still quite difficult to do without special knowledge. In fact, drip irrigation is often implemented in greenhouses using simple plastic bottles. Bottle watering is the most economical option, but also the most short-lived.

Bottle self-irrigation is classified as drip irrigation.

Basic mounting options:

• bottles are suspended;
• installed in close proximity to the root system;
• dug in to a shallow depth.

The simplest bottle system can be done by hand.

The best option for bottle watering is a bottle volume of 2 liters. Several holes of about 2 mm are made in the lid (conveniently with a hot nail). Next, we cut off the bottom of the bottle, it is better to do this not completely, so that the bottom can be used as a lid that prevents moisture evaporation and the ingress of debris. The bottle is installed in a hole no more than 15 cm deep at an angle of 45 degrees. The frequency of placing the bottles is every 15 cm of soil. Installation must be done as carefully as possible so as not to damage the root system of the plant.

When it comes to greenhouses, there are three main points that require automation:

• automatic watering;
• ventilation automation (door and window opening);
• automatic humidity control.

Before proceeding with the installation of the autowatering system, it is worthwhile to prepare well. You should start work by drawing a plot plan with the exact dimensions and location of the plants, be sure to indicate all the distances between them. Next, you need to mark the approximate location of the future water supply system, you need to calculate and mark all the branching points and pipe joints to simplify the task of buying additional funds.

After drawing all the planned pipes, it is worth thinking about the source of water supply - it can be a centralized water supply system or, if it is not possible to connect it, an ordinary barrel. It should be borne in mind that the barrel must be at a height of about 2 m (provided that you are not going to purchase a pump), and, in order to avoid water bloom, must be completely closed from the sun's rays.

We also think over the location of hoses and pipes - inside the soil, just on the surface of the earth or suspended. In case of subsurface irrigation, it is necessary to take into account the soil pressure on the pipeline, therefore, products with thicker walls should be chosen. When located on the ground, one should not forget again about the blooming of water, the pipes should not be transparent in this case.

A filter is required for the drip irrigation system, as the hoses will constantly clog up during use. It is advisable to automate the drip irrigation system; for this, special controllers are used. Using the controller, you can improve the machine with humidity, rain, temperature sensors. Simpler automation options are mechanical or electronic watering timers.

With proper auto-ventilation of the greenhouse, you can achieve truly amazing results in growing vegetable crops, because every gardener knows that heat affects plants very destructively, especially in a greenhouse, where overheating is most likely under the scorching rays of the sun.

There are 2 types of automatic ventilation:

• volatile system provided with electrical power supply;
• autonomous system, works without external electricity.

Each variety has its own advantages and disadvantages. So, the systems connected to the source of electricity are more powerful, the data from the temperature sensor give a clear command to the device when to activate the mechanism. At the same time, a power outage means death for plants.

Autonomous systems are hydraulic, bimetallic, and pneumatic. Bimetallic, the least powerful of them, should be installed only on light vents. The hydraulic drive is quite common and has good power, it is also possible to make the hydraulic system yourself at home.

Plants, due to an excess or lack of moisture in the greenhouse, can begin to suffer from various ailments, for example, fungal diseases are very fond of conditions of high humidity. On sale you can find devices to control this process, at the right time they will supply moisture to the soil, achieving an optimal value of 60-70%. The organization of the required level of humidity can increase the yield several times.

You can organize automatic watering in the greenhouse with your own hands. Homemade drip irrigation is a profitable investment for summer cottages and gardens, where there is no way to come every day. It is easiest to organize self-irrigation in a greenhouse with a drip type, so we will consider its installation principle.

Next, a water filter is sequentially in the system.Some people skip this stage, but nevertheless, in cases of water intake from external sources, grains of sand or other particles will enter the system, which can damage the entire system, simply clogging it with debris.

As for the water pressure in the system, when using different water supply sources, the pressure will be different in each individual case, therefore, in order to level somewhere insufficient, and somewhere excessive pressure, special regulators or reducers are used. To find out the required pressure of your system, you should pay attention directly to the drip hose or tape, for each of which its own working pressure is implied. The drip hose can withstand pressures up to 4 bar, the drip tape with a wall thickness of 8 mm is able to withstand 0.8 - 1 bar. Reducers are of various types, but the most convenient for automatic irrigation systems is flow-through.

Next, a water supply solenoid valve is placed in the system, connected to the controller. Its task is simple - when programming the controller, at a certain point in time it sends a signal to the valve, and it, in turn, opens or closes. This node contains all the automation of the autowatering process. Some solenoid valves are also equipped with a manual opening option. This is an important and very handy feature.

Let's choose an ordinary garden hose, its diameter should be optimally from 3 to 8 mm (the diameter of the lumen is taken into account), it will connect our water supply source: a reservoir, a water supply system, or even just a bucket - with a main pipeline that will directly supply water to the drip hoses, tapes, or external droppers will be attached to it. The main pipeline is essentially a simple polyethylene pipe. The connection between the hose and the pipeline is carried out using special fittings, which are easy to purchase at any store.

The main pipeline is connected to the drip tapes by the so-called start connectors. A hole is drilled in the pipeline of such a size that the rubber seals that come with the kit would fit there tightly. Next, a start connector is inserted into this hole and secured by tightening the nut. When buying start-connectors, you should pay attention to the presence of a crane, since not all manufacturers complete this equipment with a crane. Thus, it will be possible to regulate the partial watering of the system by turning off one or another bed. A drip tape is already connected to the start connectors, it is also simply tightened with a nut.

Remember to plug the end of the drip tape or hose at the very end of the installation.

Arrangement of drip irrigation is over. As you can see, making yourself a comfortable life in a greenhouse is not so difficult.

In this section, there will be some recommendations on how best to organize an autowatering system.

Watering Tips:

• do not allow both overdrying and excess moisture;
• watering is best done in the morning or evening;

• to understand that the soil is moistened enough, you can check how many centimeters it is wet (optimally 30-50 cm);
• it is better to give preference to watering with warm water heated by the sun;
• do not forget to loosen the soil;
• during periods of drought, sparse and abundant watering is better than frequent and small amounts.

With regard to the operation process:

• do not forget to clean the filters;
• before winter storage, be sure to completely remove water from the entire system;
• it is better to bring sensors and batteries into a warm room for the winter;
• it is also better to clean the solenoid valve for the winter;
• make sure that there are no blockages in the system.

How the installation of drip irrigation is carried out, see the following video.