I am planning on getting one to apply fish emulsion, kelp, microbial inoculants. I see there are few options hose end attachment, drip system attachments, and dosatran systems for large setups. Does anyone use these setups for fertigation. How well do they work?
The closest I have in use right now,is an EZ-Flo,for my Blueberry plants.It’s okay but dilutes too fast.
I bought a used,possibly Dosatron or similar,but haven’t got it going yet.When trying to make mine work and reading about it,they seemed to be very accurate,when dialed in.
Richard in San Diego,has some set up at his place.
There is also a venturi type,that is less expensive and may be worth looking into.
Dosatron proportions are the standard of the industry, but expensive especially for high flow rates.
Amazon sells several imports that work like a Dosatron but are much less expensive. We use a Newtry which cost about $100 when we bought it a few years ago…
A venturi type injector is cheap (about $20) and works well if you have the right flow rate and pressure but don’t care about the precise proportions. It takes a fairly high flow rate to get the suction started. Its not a precise proportion. We used it to mix a few pounds of Ammonium Sulfate in a 5 gal bucket and shoot it down and acre of Blueberries at 5GPM and 15 PSI before we bought the Newtry.
We have used EZ-Flo too but like them the least.
I have seen Richard’s setup in one of his post. I was looking for something simple and berryhilldrip seem to have a pretty neat mobile setup based on Dosatron. I have to figureout how easy is this to operate and connect to my drip PVC risers which have a 30psi reducers built-in. This setup will allow me to fertigate specific blocks in my yard (raised bed veggies), fruit trees etc.
Is the GPM rate set by Dosatron? for example if I have 5 trees with 10gph emitters and using 5gpm dosatron, will it empty the 5 gal bucket of fertilizer in a minute?
They come in many flow rates. Some are fixed and some are adjustable, In most cases they will function over a wide range of pressure and flow rates within the specs. . Generally a 1/100 ratio, but some are adjustable. If you have 5 trees X 10 GPH emitters = 50 GPH (less than 1 GPM) which is not much. With a 1/100 ratio a Dosatron type injector at 50 GPH flow rate would empty about 50/100 or about 1/2 gal of fertilizer in an hour if my math is right. The model I have can be adjusted to a max of 4% (1/25) but it would not empty a 5 gal bucket of fertilizer in an hour. You also want to fill the irrigation with water before you turn on the injector and flush clean water through the irrigation system after the fertilizer is consumed.
My injector is mounted permanently at the irrigation cutoff valve where the screen filter, pressure regulator and zone valves are located
Here are the specs on the Newtry: It would probably mount to the mobile cart in the Berryhill catalog.
- [Important Parameters]-Percentage Range: 0.4 to 4% | Ratio Range: 1:250 to 1:25 | Flow: 0.09 to 11 GPM | Pressure: 2.9 to 87 PSI | Connection Size: 3/4" NPT
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Thank you for the detailed explanation.
I use an injector with drip irrigation. I got it from Hoss Tools. They’re in Georgia. It’s adjustable so you can control the flow easily. Works great for me.
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