Fertigation – Help!

[cmartinsen]

I’ve been very pleased with the opensprinkler platform and want to integrate it further into my irrigation system. I farm vineyards and have use the opensprinkler to control my irrigation system at my vineyard located about 3 hours from my home. The system works great for monitoring and irrigating the 8 irrigation blocks I currently have. Here’s my challenge (idea) –

I fertigate (inject liquid fertilizer into the irrigation lines during irrigation to deliver fertilizer to the plants through the irrigation system). My normal irrigation time is about 3 hours per block which delivers about 3 gallons of water per plant per irrigation cycle (1gph per plant). My goal is to inject 1 gallon of fertilizer per acre once a week during the irrigation cycle. My injection system is power from 110 power and the pump meters itself to inject about 1/2 gallon of liquid per hour (it is not variable flow).

My goal – Have the fertigation pump controlled by a valve control to turn on 15 min after a block turns on and run for a designated time (calculated by the acreage being irrigated). An example of this would be:
Valve 1 (1 acre) opens from 1am to 4am
Fertigation for 1 runs from 1:15am and runs till 2:15am

Valve 2 (1/2 acre) opens from 4am to 7am
Fertigation for 2 runs from 4:15 am and runs till 4:45am

Valve 3 (3/4 acre) opens from 7am to 10am
Fertigation for 3 runs from 7:15am to 8:00am

I can already actuate the Fertigation “valve” with radio (rf outlet) or a 24v/110v relay (current setup).

Any help, direction or ideas are appreciated.

Thanks – Craig

[Author]

Posts