Fertilizers are used to grow healthy plants by delivering the nutrients plants need, but they can overload the soil with nutrients. Fertigation offers another solution to ensuring plants get the optimal levels of nutrients.
Fertigation is a more effective method for operating your nutrient management plans saving fertilizer, water, and labor costs. Not just a strategy used by greenhouses, hydroponic and large-scale cannabis growers are turning to fertigation, which can be implemented with your existing irrigation system.
Below, we’ll take a look at what exactly fertigation is and what benefits it provides to growers.
What Exactly is Fertigation?
The word “fertigation” is exactly what it sounds like: fertilizer + irrigation.
Simply put, fertigation is the basic process of adding liquid nutrient fertilizer to your existing irrigation system.
It combines both fertilizer and irrigation and is most commonly utilized in commercial grow operations, but can also be used in smaller grows.
Installing an irrigation system for a large grow operation can be time-consuming and complicated. If you don’t have an irrigation or fertigation system, contact us and we can help you get started.
What is a Fertigation System?
A fertigation system involves injection to provide precise and timely mixing and delivery of fertilizers to your irrigation system.
Fertigation systems are designed to apply nutrients directly to the roots of your plants. The optimized system operates in separate stages that continually maintain proper nutrient balance for your plants.
When your plants need nutrients at different stages of the grow cycle, both manually operated and programmable automated systems are available. With the help of automation, fertigation systems aren’t as labor intensive as traditional fertilizing methods.
Programmable automated systems allow you to take full control over your fertilizer formulations when adjustments are needed.
How Does Fertigation Work?
Fertigation systems are added to existing irrigation systems, such as an underground drip or center pivot irrigation system. These systems can be programmed to fertigate your crops based on their specific nutrient requirements. While the technology and equipment used in a system ranges from basic to advanced set-ups, the fertigation timing element is key to a system’s success.
The size of your cultivation facility and its technical requirements will determine what design is needed to build a system that fits your growing needs. At Green Fertigation, we’re also able to offer a range of options to meet your specific budget.
Basic fertigation setups use various equipment including tanks, timers, valves, pumps, and a backflow preventer, among other equipment. More advanced systems offer advanced precision for ph levels and measurements as well as other features.
What Are The Benefits Of A Fertigation System?
By reducing the guesswork, fertigation systems utilize traditional agricultural methods with modern automation technologies. You can think of it as a programmable “smart system” for fertilization, which makes your grow operation feel more like a science lab than a farm.
Fertigation systems in larger grow operations with uniform fields or hydroponic systems typically receive the highest increase in beneficial results. They maintain the precision in quantity and timing needed to improve plant health.
Agricultural benefits to fertigation systems
- Maximize potential yield
- Remove guesswork
- Remote monitoring and fertilizer formulation adjustments
- Reduce costs
- Saves time and effort
- Precise and timely fertilizer delivery
- Nutrients applied directly to the plant’s roots
- Automated hands-off programmable delivery
- Combine fertilizers for more efficiency
The above is a shortlist of the benefits that both a basic manually controlled fertigation system or an advanced cutting-edge automated system can provide.
Cannabis Fertigation Systems
From a horticultural perspective, cannabis fertigation uses the same techniques as systems designed for other commercial crops. The main difference stems from the unique needs of the cannabis plants, which determine the fertigation frequency, nutrient requirements, and variation based on the growth cycle.
Cannabis farmers are starting to take advantage of scalable fertigation systems for their cultivation facilities. One of the reasons is that it’s easy to transition from a standard irrigation system to a fertigation system using either in-line injection or dilute tank control methods.
With a few pieces of fertigation equipment added to your existing irrigation system, you’ll start to experience the benefits of an automated nutrient delivery system.
Both manual and automatic control mechanisms are available to control the drip flow of nutrients into your irrigation lines.
We also install fail-safe systems to prevent backflow from contaminating your quality water source.
Final Thoughts On Cannabis Fertigation Systems
Commercial cannabis fertigation systems are available in your area to help you boost your revenue by reducing labor and waste costs.
Cost savings on large uniform fields and smaller grow operations are possible by adding a manually operated basic (or complex automated) fertigation system to your existing irrigation methods.
Contact Comprehensive Cultivation Services to learn more about how to get started with your cannabis fertigation system today.