Greenhouse Watering Also Known as Greenhouse Misting
Many factors lend themselves to the overall development of your plant life within the greenhouse environment.
Factors like heating, humidity, ventilating system, location for shade, and air circulation are some of the more important. One of the most important things we need to consider is the amount of moisture and the watering required for your plants.
Greenhouse Watering (Misting)
Deciding the amount of moisture required to maintain the proper levels in the greenhouse there are many things to consider; ventilating system, amount of shade, daily changes in climate and humidity. To maintain a comfortable environment for your plants controlling the humidity will be of utmost importance.
Evaporation is the process of liquid being turned into gas. When water is evaporated it causes a great deal of moisture to be lost as the gas escapes into the air. To replace the moisture it is necessary to mist the greenhouse
A simple formula to follow would be for every 10 sq. ft. Of greenhouse you require 1-2 gallons/hr of moisture. A good watering system can handle the proper dispersion.
These watering systems can lower the temperatures from 14 degrees Celsius or 25 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some Important Facts Regarding Water Systems
These watering systems spread a very coarse spray or a very fine mist. Nozzle type, water pressure and the spacing of the nozzle spray holes will determine the size of the droplets.
Nozzles are made from 2 types of materials, plastic or brass. Minerals, like lime, found in the water will have a tendency to clog up the brass nozzle types, where the plastic style nozzles actually repel the lime making them less susceptible to clogging.
There are many other uses for these watering systems other than just to spray your plants. Curing concrete, static electricity control and dust suppression are just three.
Noise Free pumps are utilized on these watering systems for continuous or intermittent 24 hour service. For the intermittent variety; they will sprinkle water for a duration of 5 minutes, shut off for a minute and then start misting again. This is a continuous process.
Programmable, electronic timers can now be added to these new Watering Systems that allows for periodic misting ranging from 1 – 24 minutes, 1 – 13 times a day.
When you need to find out the amount of water required to effectively maximize the watering system, you can use a specific calculation. Take the number of nozzles and multiply it by the flow rate per minute of the nozzle. Take the results and multiply it by the number of minutes the watering system will be operating each day.
(number of nozzles x nozzle flow per minute) x minutes of use per day
This should give you a very good idea of how much water would be required for the watering system.
There will be times when the watering system is not enough. For example, if you are working in a very dry climate where the humidity is below 50%, you may require an evaporative cooler. The unit will cool the air up to 20 degrees by spreading water across the area of a pad located in the cooling unit. The use of fans on the other side of the greenhouse cause a negative pressure in the enclosure causing the air to be passed through the pads taking the evaporated water and passing it through the cooler and then into the greenhouse. A programmable controlled system operates the water pump and the fans.
Watering systems are just one of many considerations when designing your greenhouse. If you are still not sure what type of greenhouse best suits you, check out Greenhouse Design.
Greenhouse watering is extremely important for the growth of your plants, but so is Greenhouse Lighting.
The Author:
Tyler York is a gardening enthusiast living in the Great White North.
