Dan,
Netafin has an outstanding protical for water particle management.
I used a there recommend solution to the problem, but my supplier modified the solution with off the self products. And today we do rhe same thing with a garden of drip tube and house hold well water.
At the farm we ran to basic types of drip. Netafim in the greenhouse 100%. In the fields we irragated with a really low cost drip tape from a California, field vegetable supplier, still have a full rool. But it 25 years old. The
tape was low enough in cost to irrigate 3 acres for as need iragation. It was field profitable vs questionable. The goal for the field was to pay the entire years production costs. So that everything in the greenhouse was profit. 3 acres of field could support
20k feet of greenhouse. We calculated, that we could have 1 acre of of field could support 10k sqft of greenhouse. And we did not use the greenhouse two months a year. The greenhouse just cost to much to operate in July and August to diliver a quality we need.
So we cleaned the greenhouse in summer for the regular season. We used a temp agency to supply the labor for the shit jobs in the greenhouse in summer. They covered all the legal and insurance issues. We used our skilled winter staff for things that made money.
One junior employee supervised the summer Temps. We had a detailed list of tasks for the 9 weeks not in the greenhouse. The field schedule was much harder than the greenhouse schedule. We gave away of seconds from the fields. Much harder to have first quality
in summer. So we donated most of the seconds and had a write off for the donations.
Back to water.
We used two particle screens on a three inch line followed by a course filter a fine filter followed by a charcoal filter. We then reinjected chlorine back into the water from Cl gas with a really strange injector from Anderson.
The particle filters where hooked to a timer for a weekly flush. The canister filters were based on gallons used. We just read our water meter everyday. We taped the cities digital line with a clamp on electric meter and messure electric flow to the meter
with a little math, we could programmatically figure out flow in gallons because water was a big expense. Expecially in summer with the possibility of having to irrigate. The fields we had 150 foot long beds 4 feet wide and annual rye grass for aisles. We
switch every two years. There where 98 rows in propigation. The hardest part of the switch over was moving of perennial plants. This was gennerly a fall task. The field drip lines where 50 automatically controlled the other half I decided when. The field supply
had three of the largest king low pressure drains I have ever seen. We dug giant gray water pits. To drain the field lines. We had a pressure release ball at the high point in the field. The field supply lines could be drained at will and was if we needed
to liquid feed in the drip. We had about 25% of field crop that warrented liquid feed. Mostly some high value cut flowers. Basil turned out to be a great specialty field crop. We cropped basil in the field as may days as we could we used a string of lights
to keep them from flowering. The goal was 100 to 200 lbs of basil leaves each week. May through September. Summer cuts flowers wholesale is hard after mothers day until school starts up, it’s just wedding sales in the high end market in summer.
So we grew a very strange mix of flowers and vegetables. About 50% to our regular wholesale customers, florists. They bought a lot of vegetables, for personal usage! Restaurant, high-end became wholesale customers in summer. But,
the farmers markets where big retail money. We hit 3 farmer markets in the summer. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. All number ones where sold. No seconds. At the end of each market we traded any surplus with other producers for our own needs of family and
all staff. This was a very funny accounting problem. Our final solution was, lost to experation of quality requirement. Wrote off the costs. We where completely legal. But, the ethics of the write off bothered me. No one had a food bill on staff for 3.5 months
of the year. Best employee incentive we ever came up with. We paid your regular pay plus all your food for absolutely the hardest physical work of my life. The profit from the field paid for 100% of the production cost of the greenhouse season. We were in
the greenhouse September 1 through June 30th. June inside was hit or miss. We grew crops that would be reaching the end of there production life. And June is a mixed time in the field. We just pushed space to in the greenhouse April, May and June. Some vary
pricey perennial where moved from the greenhouse to summer beds. And frames. Convilaria was treated like queens. Any flower that whole sale got me more than 50 cents a stem was gold. We grew Convilaria only on special order. It could generate upto $100 a sqft
per in a four week hard force profit. We force about 40k stems a season any only grown to order. That was complex. We grew are own pips.
Water in the greenhouse was a complex problem. The sweet pea was a complex hydroponic problem but a cash cow. I would have grown more sweet pea if it was not so complex a grow. They are so VPD and light sensitive. We could sell
100% of number 1. Again 50 cents a stem but they grow up and the sqft value is higher than Cannabis. We used big septic tank for affluent storage. We could never decide if that was the best solution or not. Hindsite was yes, we did it right. We just need
a way to automate the daily water testing. One of us had to daily measures EC and figure out NKPCa in the affluent and to replace what was missing. Saturday we switched to tank two and auto cleaned tank one. UV in line scrubber was the single most expensive
part at the time. And we babies the the two of them with there own smaller septic tank that was also our tornado shelter. We could fit ten people tightly.
Netafin engineering is out of this world. We had less than 1/2% difference first emitter to last in the line. And my partner tested it when we installed the first run. I would bet about 400 emitters in a run. I had to procure 500
two quate food grade plastic pails. I cringed at the expense at first. But, we perchased a lot more when I found a 1 quate sp? talls. Perfect for flower handling. We used a lot of grainger parts handling boxes for plumbing supply houses.
All our lab equipment was home made or second hand.
Our megnet stirer was made from a children’s 45 rpm record player! That was fun. One of the only lab purchases new was a lamner flow hood, small sized maybe 4 feet long.
From the voices in my head
Ethan
From the voices in my head
Ethan Kayes
