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Alternatives to Dosatrons: Which Fertigation Tool Wins? · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp, the founder of Utreema Limited.
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  We make fertilizers, biostimulants and biopesticides, all completely unique
• 0:13
  and you won't find them the chemistry anywhere else.
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  On a previous episode, I talked about dosatrons and talked
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  about how they can dose a correct amount of
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  fertilizer into a certain amount of water in your
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  stream through your pipe and direct to
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  your plants so using a dosatron it takes liquid
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  from a from a fertilizer container or
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  from a a tank and then
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  doses it into the water stream that's going to the plants to
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  produce a fertigation solution obviously they're only used
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  on run-to-waste systems large run-to-waste
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  systems otherwise it's not worth having a dosatron so medium
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  scale greenhouse upwards and it's
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  run-to-waste because if it's circled back it would just continually
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  be adding fertilizer so obviously the alternative to
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  that in a recyclability system is just having a fertigation
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  tank that you would add the fertilizer to as a set amount and then you would
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  maybe monitor ph up and ph down um and and other aspects of that and add other
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  nutrients to it but there are other options if you're you have a run to waste
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  system run to Waste can mean just adding it,
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  it goes out of the pots and into the soil afterwards.
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  So it's not as bad as it sounds, but it still is leaking into the environment.
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  There are a few alternatives. So I just wanted to talk about alternatives to
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  dosatrons. There is something called a Venturi injector. Now that's not a trade name.
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  Relies on the venturi effect where injectors
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  use a pressure differential pressure differential created
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  by water flowing through a constricted section of pipe
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  and this pressure drop draws fertilizer or
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  chemical concentrate into the irrigation line a lot
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  cheaper than dosatrons no moving parts unlike
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  dosatrons just like dosatrons no power is required
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  very simple to install can be
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  used in line doesn't require sort of attaching to
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  walls or anything like that like a dosatron but the
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  injection rate varies with flow and crucially pressure whereas that doesn't
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  with a dosatron it's also less accurate and not as repeatable as a dosatron
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  so if you've got unless you're really really you know struggling for debt for.
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  For budget then i would stick with a dosatron type there
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  is electronic electric meter
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  pumps so you could have a pump that adds it to the
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  to the solution and there could be a diaphragm pump
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  or a peristaltic pump you know so
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  that could be run by electrics or air pressure
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  those sorts of pumps you know and you could have an air compressor what.
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  Are the advantages of having an electric pump versus a dosatron obviously you're
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  going to need an electrical supply and it's
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  probably going to need to be linked up to a computer but it provides flexibility
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  in dosing both the fertilizer and any
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  ph or anything like that so you can vary the
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  flow rate using sensors or at
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  a whim remotely as well so and then
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  potentially more accurate as well when properly calibrated
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  but requires that electrical power a lot more
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  complex system so this is not a medium scale hydroponic
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  system this is a very large scale system and typically
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  a higher life cycle cost and susceptible
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  to damage corrosive chemicals if materials are mismatched as
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  well when you're choosing the right pump you have to be really careful
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  about what materials you can use and then
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  obviously a the technical term for a dosatron is a
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  hydraulic proportional injector which doesn't
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  roll off the tongue hence the way people just chose the
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  leading brand to call them but you can buy
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  non dosatron brands like mix rights injector
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  meter amyad injectors and so
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  you could choose a non dosatron branded one and as
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  i say they're water-driven pistons and they proportionally
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  inject concentrate based on the water volume passing through them not the pressure
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  no electricity required just like a normal dosatron well the drawbacks though
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  of using a non-branded dosatron injector well the potential for lower build
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  quality and longevity so you could be you know.
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  That's something you have to weigh up maybe get experience from people who've
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  used them and compared them to dosatrons in the past look at Reddit and other
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  forums to see where they've used it.
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  There's going to be less options available. They're not going to have the range
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  because Dose Strong is the leading brand.
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  It's got lots of options for the chemicals that go through it,
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  so like the pH up, pH down.
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  It might need specific materials and different flow rate, different dosing rates,
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  so they might have less range of inclusion rates,
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  so 0.5% or 0.1%, the very low end or the very high end.
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  And service and support less global service spare parts availability things
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  like this you know once it goes wrong can you get a spare part for it if you're
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  buying it off alibaba for example,
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  and then obviously the other option is just to use a fertigation tank
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  even if you're not using a recirculatory system you
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  could potentially just feed the water into a fertigation tank add
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  your nutrients and then flow out from there so very low
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  equipment costs compared to a dosatron no moving parts no
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  power required but you know neither require
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  power really but but the disadvantage of that is no
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  proportion the proportional inconsistent dosing
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  you know it's up to the user to dose correctly and also it's sat there for a
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  long time so it could grow bacteria microbial growth biofilms things like this
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  so you know anywhere where there's a tank with liquid sitting in it that's water-based
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  you could get growth so not really used.
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  So yeah so they are some of the options there for alternatives if you've used any of those then,
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  i'd love to hear your feedback if you're especially
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  if you're in run to waste so these would be particularly common
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  in america and sort of medium-sized greenhouses where
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  it's sort of run to waste systems where you you might you
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  know these are good systems where you've got one crop
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  that's hydroponic and then you're able to take the spent fertigation
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  solution and apply it to a field crop that's the ideal
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  situation because then you're not wasting any of
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  that solution so obviously you don't
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  have the benefits of recycle recirculating the the feed
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  that's the disadvantage runs waste the advantage is that it's
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  a lot more simple so that's why
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  a lot of people use them on medium scale glass house operations so if i was
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  in a grow even if it was in a grow room or a vertical farm i would always be
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  looking at recirculatory systems because you want to be saving that water and
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  saving that fertigation and
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  you don't want the issues of how to dispose of it as well because you know.
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  The EPA or the Environment Agency will come down on you hard.
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  Even in the US, UK, especially in Holland, they caught a lot of glass houses
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  that were supposed to be recirculating their system, actually dumping their
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  fertigation solution into the canals.
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  And they catch them all in the winter because the fertigation solution is nice
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  and warm and the canals freeze over and snow gets on them.
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  And then they could just fly over with a drone or a helicopter and see where
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  the ice has melted in the canals and stuff like that.
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  So be careful. People are always watching you. Whatever you're doing,
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  there's always somebody with a nosy neighbor checking out what's going on.
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  All right. That's been Hydroponics Daily for today. If you found this at all
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  but it's very important. It helps share the show.
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  But if not, just make sure you click follow so you don't miss an episode.
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  And at the very least, check out utreema.co.uk. E-U-T-R-E-M-A.
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  Dot co.uk fabulous unique fertilizers
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  in hydroponics and in hydroponics often all that differs is the branding and
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  the badge and the bottle so uh yeah check it out that's been hydroponics daily
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  for today i'm off to the gym i'll see you again tomorrow goodbye.