Autopot How to Get Started 2

8/13/2019 Autopot How to Get Started 2

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Hydroponics Made Easy

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CHECK THE CONTENT OF YOURINTERMEDIATE AUTO-POT HY-DROPONICS KIT

1. 10 Hydrotray and lids2. 10 Smart-valve Mk2 and screws3. 1 roll 13mm tubing 25M4. 2 pieces 13mm grommets5. 1 unit 13mm in line filter6. 2 units 13mm taps7. 10 units of 4mm taps8. 1 roll of 4mm 10M tubing9. 1 hole puncher 4mm10. 20 units of 10” Squat pots11. 10 pieces of 4mm straight joints12. 2 uints of 13mm elbow joints13. Instruction booklet

Setting Up The Intermediate

System

Connect up the system as shown in the diagram be-low. Place the tank 0.5 me-ter or higher than the grow-ing module. The higher thebetter.

Auto-Pot Nutrient in 2 x 5 Litre pack

Options:-1. 250 litre recycled drums2. Nutrients 10 litres3. Nutrient meter

Lid

250mm pot

HydrotraySmart-valve

4mm tubingconnection to13mm main feed

13 mm tap

4mm tap

13mm filter

13mm main feed line

13 mm tap

200-Litre drum

Mix in nutrients into thereservoir tank. As perrecommendation on thelabels.



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LARGER AUTOPOT SYSTEM

There is no limit how large the Auto-Pot Sys-tems can be extended to. For example, the pic-ture below shows a commercial hydroponic to-mato farm with a 2,500 pot system (or 1,250modules) fed by a single unit of the Auto-Potdosing System (photo right).

Autopot Dos-ing Unit withventuri feed-ing systemfor moreserious hob-byists.

AutopotDosing Unitwith elec-tronic dosingsystem forcommercialgrowers

The decision to install a pumpassisted system is usually gov-erned by economics. It is oftencheaper to put in a pump as-sisted system than it is to in-stall a large tank, or whenthere are space limitationsthat make a large tank diffi-cult to site.

B. The Next Step – a pump assisted system.As you continue to add more growing containers to your system youmay eventually come to a point where you feel that filling tanks has

become more of a chore than a pleasure. This can become more appar-ent when you first encounter a very hot and windy day as the plants areall in a growth cycle. Water that you have grown accustomed to lastingfor several weeks can be gone in a few days. The added demands forwater in these conditions is surprising. Fortunately, provided there iswater available, the system copes wonderfully well because it is at thisstage that the deficiencies of hand watering or even programmed water-ing really show up.

But when you start to feel that you are there to serve your system ratherthan it being the other way around, it’s time to consider upgrading to a

pressurised system. So we introduce you to yet another ingenious inno-vation by Jim Fah – the Smart-pump Feeding System.

There are several ways nutrient solution can be delivered to the grow-ing modules. It can be fed from a small pressure-switch pump as shownin diagrams A and B page 28 together with different options for nutri-ent supply and additional dosing of other chemicals such as pH correc-tion fluids.



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2. The Autopot Smart-pump SetA pump is used to generate and maintain a working pressure of 10psi in

the tubing delivering nutrient solution to the growing modules. Threemethods of nutrient dosing are available to work in conjunction with the pump.

A. Manual method – as shown in diagram A page 29. Nutrients aremixed into the water of the larger reservoir tank manually. Toppingup with fresh water and adding of nutrients is carried out daily. Alarger capacity tank would require less frequent topping up.

B. Venturi method – as shown in diagram B page 29. Water in the 50-liter reservoir tank is kept at constant level by the ball valve con-nected to mains water supply. When the pump operates, water isdrawn from the nutrient bottle and a proportion of the nutrients issucked from the tanks into the delivery lines.

C. Electronic doser method – as shown page 27 photo of doser and pump set on the bottom right. Nutrients are dispensed into the reser-voir by gravity via the two solenoid valves operated by the electronicdoser to maintain a preset nutrient concentration.

A low cost 12-volt pump works perfectly with the Smart-valves. It starts pumping when one or more of the Smart-valves open to allow nutrientwater into the growing trays. Once the last working Smart-valve closes,

the pump will immediately stop pumping. The pump works only whennecessary, that is, only when there is a need to refill a tray as dictated bythe Smart-valves. Hence, the system is extremely energy efficient. Inactual operation, the pump works intermittently - busiest during the heatof the day when nutrient demand by the plants is the highest and quiet-est during the night when nutrient demand is the lowest.

The power required by the pump is 12V 4 amp DC. The system can be powered from a car battery, a transformer or a solar panel. A Battery is agood insurance against temporary power failure.

In areas where power supply is a problem or unreliable, the gravity tank

is the best option. The cost of installing the pressure switch pump sys-tems is cheaper than the gravity tank method.

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A solar panel this size can providesufficient power to operate a 4

Autopot Smart-pump sets.

The control panel for solar power.

Batteries provide back up power .



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Diagram A

FlowFeeding up to2,500 plants 2,000 liter

inground tank

Pressure pump

Ground level

Agitator

Pump

Manual mixing of nutri-

ents into the tank at regu-lar intervals.

Watersupply

Safety Level

Manual Nutrient Dosing

Car Battery

A B

+- Batterycharger ortransformer12V DC

13mm

polypi pe

13mm In-line filter

13mmtap

50-litertank

Ball-cock

Valve

Damper

Pressure Switch pump12V DC 4 amp

Nutrient part A

Nutrient Part

4mm feeder tube

4mm tap

4mm check valve

Waterreservoir

Connected tomains water

supply

Flow

FlowFeeding up to

2,500 plants

PRESSURE PUMP SET – With Venturi Feeding

Diagram B

Documents

Autopot How to Get Started 2