My Fertigation System For The EarthTainer / EarthBox AWS

[rnewste]

Background: I have 35 EarthTainers and 3 EarthBox units to tend. Individual watering was not an option, so adapting the excellent EarthBox Automated Watering System (AWS) was the best investment I've made for the garden 5 years ago.





Now my focus was on an automated Fertigation system to tie in to the AWS. The second best gardening investment has been the EZ Flo (actually, a Father's Day gift from my son in Hydroponics).

Installation was rather easy, in-line with the AWS:



Selecting the optimal flow restrictor was the biggest challenge:



There are 3 flow options, so I did the "Goldilocks thing" and installed the mid-sized washer (not shown, now fitted in the unit) for a 30 gallon per hour rate.

As there are 4 fertilizer settings, getting the ideal ratio will take some time to fine tune:



Right now I am starting off with Big Bloom in the injector:



And I will make the transition to Texas Tomato Food in a subsequent feeding cycle.

Raybo

[JamesL]

Raybo,
Glad to see this thread, you wasted no time getting it posted.
Looking forward to your results!

[mdvpc]

Ray-As always, you are leading the charge with innovation in your EarthTainers!

[rnewste]

The "fun" part now begins, as the lag time from the selected feed ratio setting will likely be several weeks to a month to observe results; then an increase / decrease in flow rate setting. This will likely take until September to get it set right....

Raybo

[dfollett]

Thanks again for sharing. Does this mean you have concluded that extensive fertilizer supplementation is necessary? If so, how early do you start to supplement? I assume you only turn on water an hour or so each day to assure enough flow to allow the feeder to work.

[rnewste]

dfollet,

If you use 3 cups synthetic fertilizer with a relatively high NPK (like Osmocote) in the EarthTainer fertilizer strip, then additional feeding during the Season should not be necessary.

If however, you use a low NPK Organic fert like Tomato-tone / Plant-tone then I would recommend supplemental feeding during the year. Cukes especially need this additional feeding in my experience.

I can also use the EZ Flo to inject Azos, Great White and other water soluble nutrients like Calcinit easily. Wish I had installed this 5 years ago.....

I give the AWS system 1 hour per day access to the feed-water, not that it is necessarily running for that entire duration. Typically each EarthTainer in the system shuts off its individual AWS intake valve after about 40 minutes. More during the hot weather, so I give them 60 minutes access time for a safety margin.

Raybo

[chalstonsc]

Raybo,
I've been using EZ-FLO for five years with self watering containers and it works great, and makes it so much easier. Smaller amounts of fertilizer(I use the lowest setting) on a regular basis really does the trick, but your tomatoes haven't ever seemed to be lacking. Enjoy the ease.

[rnewste]

Originally Posted by chalstonsc

Raybo,
I've been using EZ-FLO for five years with self watering containers and it works great, and makes it so much easier. Smaller amounts of fertilizer(I use the lowest setting) on a regular basis really does the trick, but your tomatoes haven't ever seemed to be lacking. Enjoy the ease.

What is the strength of the fertilizer / water mix you put in to the EZ Flo dispenser? Glad to hear you are happy with the product. Truth be told....I am basically lazy - and want to spend more time in the Hot Tub this Summer.

Raybo

[ricman]

Hello Raybo,

I will be eagerly awaiting your results. I have the largest E-Z Flo I purchased about 4 years ago and used for some bucket tomatoes I was growing. I haven't used it in a couple of years but it worked well for me back then. If all goes well with your testing, I may use it with my rain gutters next year. Best of luck cant wait to see your progress.

Rick

[BucksCountyGirl]

Very cool, Ray!

[Worth1]

Nice.

I did some studying and realized I could connect a low flow solenoid valve in line with the water coming into the tank.
I could then make it another zone and have it come on simultaneously with any other zone at any time of the month.
Or any combination I wanted.
By adjusting the time the valve stays on and the amount of fertilizer it put out it could be fine tuned to whatever I wanted on any other zone on the property.
A person could have several tanks each with its own zone and valve with different stuff in them and fine tune it even more.
Sweet!!!

If any of this makes sense.

Worth

[rnewste]

Worth,

Makes perfect sense.

Having multiple zones on your irrigation system is a real advantage to fully utilize the Ez Flo units.

Raybo

[Worth1]

Raybo how many gpm do you think flows through the ez flow?
just a wild guess will do.
The valves I use are good to as little as 0.025 gpm.

Worth

[Virtex]

Hey Raybo,

Have you thought about diluting your fertilizer by 1/4 - 1/8 with water in the ez-flo and running it all the time? I would think that the AWS doesn't always kick on during your 1 hour time frame. By diluting and running 24/7 you will have a more consistent flow of fertilizer. Then you can get rid of the timer which is a extra thing that can break.

Just my two cents, I love your setup!

- Scott

[chalstonsc]

Raybo,
Been a long time since I figured this out and my notes from when I did look close to Arabic to me now. I use Miracle-gro 24-8-16(blue). I have the three gallon size EZ-FLO tank which at the "SLOW" setting , a 1000:1 ratio, empties the fertilizer I put into the tank after 3,000 gallons are dispensed. To the tank I add roughly 3/4 to 1 pound of Miracle-gro. Today I added fertilizer to the tank for the third time this year, since the plants went in on April 1st. (Early season I water daily once per day for 15 minutes through a makeshift dripper system, and am now watering twice a day for minutes each)