Last year we had good results with the liquid fertilizer fed into the drip lines. Well.. to be honest, SOME of the fertilizer worked.. some was too heavy and settled out, causing the drip lines to plug a bit. Lesson learned. BUT, it was expensive!
This year we are cutting corners a bit.. making out own fertilizer tea, right at the garden spot!
It is basically a plastic barrel, with a floatless fill valve mounted at the bottom, and a screened fertilizer injector intake hung through the lid. That's it! In theory, we fill the bucket with whatever we want to use as fertilizer, and let it run. As the watering happens daily, the fertilizer injector adds the homemade liquid fertilizer at the rate of 2%. The floatless fill valve keeps the water level in the barrel at the preset level so that when the injector sucks out the fertilizer tea, the fill valve periodically opens to add water back to proper level.
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| This is the complete control area, 6 valves in the center, computer controller at the right, fertilizer injector on the left, filters and intake valve underneath |
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| Here is the fertilizer injector we are using. mechanical and adjustable from 1% to 2% injection rate |
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| The fertilizer tea barrel, water intake at the bottom going to the floatless valve. the pipe out the top is the screened injector intake pipe |
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| This is the floatless valve we used. cost about $10 at any hardware store, and no externally moving parts |
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| A top view, the brick keeps the top from blowing away. |
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