At Penny UK Irrigation our Pipes for Water Pressure Supply marked and labelled “CAUDAL” have 5 YEARS guarantee
Tweet
Pipes for Water Pressure Supply marked and labelled CAUDAL have 5 YEARS guarantee
Author: Zoli Mezei
Clean irrigation for 100 hectares
Hydrogen peroxide gets UK soft fruit grower East Seaton Farm out of a sticky situation
East Seaton Farm is a leading soft fruit grower in East Scotland with more than 100 ha under management. The family business, formed in 1991, supplies the major supermarkets in the UK. They grow their blueberries and strawberries on soilless substrate with drip irrigation lines. Water is sourced locally from bore holes – while easily accessible and sustainable, this also posed a challenge, and that’s where the Danish company HPNow comes in. Their hydrogen peroxide generation solution helped cleaning the lines.
Biofilm issues! Iron in the fertilizer feeds bacteria growing in the irrigation lines (white slime in the pictures), clogging drippers and depleting the crop from iron nutrients. 
After application of Peroxide UltrapureTM, the white substance was removed, the drippers were flowing again and the crop’s iron deficiency was corrected.
Iron oxidizing bacteria
The irrigation water, taken out of the bore holes, is drawn into 50 m3 holding tanks, from where it flows into the main irrigation manifold. The grower reported recurring outbreaks of biofilm, a slimy white substance within the irrigation lines, holding tanks and irrigation system, which was substantially blocking drippers and resulting in non-uniform irrigation. In addition, the grower also reported iron deficiency in the crops, despite the use of iron fertilizers.
East Seaton asked HPNow for help in combating the negative impact this had on irrigation uniformity, system maintenance costs, crop yield and plant health. Analysis performed by HPNow showed high levels of iron within the white substance, which meant the substance was absorbing iron meant for the plants and explains the observed iron deficiency. Further consultation with plant pathogen experts pointed to iron oxidizing bacteria as the cause of the white substance.
Clean irrigation, healthier crop
HPNow’s recommendation was to pursue a combination of periodic shock treatments in the main lines combined with continuous dosage in the laterals throughout all irrigation cycles. HPNow distributor Penny UK installed two HPGen A2000 Peroxide UltraPureTM systems at the farm to control the white substance in the water, leading to positive results within weeks.
Using HPGen Peroxide UltraPureTM proved highly effective for Allen Innes, East Seaton Farm Manager, who reported the white substance was nearly eliminated within a few weeks. “HPGen has been the ideal solution for us, and we are now looking forward to a clean irrigation system and a healthier crop,” he comments.
Clean irrigation for 100 hectares ,Hydrogen peroxide gets UK soft fruit grower East Seaton Farm out of a sticky situation
Tweet
Call to promote Scottish blueberries
Scottish soft fruit growers have called for better marketing to promote their crop which they say is facing increased competition from South American imports.
James Porter of East Scryne Farm told The Courier that as consumers are used to buying the fruit year-round, they don’t discriminate between imported and home-grown fruit, especially as both are available in the summer. “Supermarkets stock British strawberries during the summer season – they wouldn’t get away with importing from abroad. We’re now asking them to take a similar approach with blueberries,” he said.
“Scottish growers managed to find a window of opportunity with this crop and blueberries tick a lot of boxes for us as they come on stream towards the end of the summer so extend the season for pickers, but it would be a brave grower who puts in more blueberries just now with concerns over returns and labour availability.”
Fellow grower Ross Mitchell from Laurencekirk added, “We have built a strong industry in Scotland, but we need more education on the quality and seasonality of what we’re producing. I hope retailers will support a campaign for British and Scottish fruit as COVID has led people to focus on a healthy local diet.”
Senmatic Bio Venturi
Bio Mixer development
The product was developed in the beginning of this year and has now been tested for a few months. “ A lot of people have already shown interest and we’ve even already sold some.” The product was developed in cooperation with customers in Germany and Austria, who went to Senmatic’s local dealers with the question for a way to easily add biomass to their irrigation water. Together with the dealers, they worked it out.
“Growers want to add microorganisms or bio-fertilizers to the irrigation water, without changing the EC. Therefore, the dosage should be proportional to the amount of irrigation water and automatically controlled for each culture, via the fertilizer mixer. You can see and follow the EC on the bio mixer.”
The Bio Venturi is a part added to the Bio Mixer. It is suitable for the adding and precise dosage of bio-fertilizers, nematodes, H2O2, Bactimos, beneficials and microorganisms. The Bio Mixer is suitable for all kinds of crops in greenhouses, indoor farms, as well as in outdoor, open field crops. Johnny Rasmussen, Business Development Manager with Senmatic: “We took the knowledge from the grower and our expertise and brought that together. Now we have the bio venturi.”
Helping the grower
The bio venturi, which is added to the AMI Penta Bio Mixer, saves the grower many labour hours. “When the grower wants a certain amount of organic matter on his tables or in his drippers, he has to add that organic matter by hand. That used to be work which took quite some time. Now, instead of doing it manually, it’s done by the computer which is more precise, so it saves money as well.”
Senmatic developments and updates
On our latest installed Amigo Penta Senmatic unit, we have done it a bit differently.
Traditionally we use a system pump and wrap around design to inject the fertiliser. As we use a mixing tank, we need the use of a small booster pump which is already incorporated within the unit. The system pump incorporates a variable speed drive or Hydrovar unit.
Within this project we have removed the Hydrovar (but kept the same pump) and added a variable speed drive that the Penta computer can see, understand and control. In simple terms we can dial in the pressure required at source to deliver the correct pressure for each valve group. If the valve is further away with a higher pressure loss then we increase the pressure at source for that valve.
Separately, we have included a Bio Venturi dosing unit. This is a separate Venturi leg on the rig with additional flow monitoring and control alongside the new software. This control leg has been designed for introducing Hydrogen Peroxide, Nematodes and other additives at highly accurate levels. This will replace the need for a speed control pump for the injection of hydrogen peroxide on this system.
The unit has a mini PC that allows Senmatic engineers to give instruction, fault find and update the system from a technical aspect. A simple Sim card will allow the data transfer.
SuperLink 6 can also be added to this min PC which will allow any user on the internet to view the control computer and alter settings (password protected).
The SiiP sensors are a set of sensors and software that Penny UK and Senmatic have introduced over the last 12 months specifically for soft fruit growers. The agronomists and growers have been using delayed readings to give alerts to the state of the irrigation and plants and then manually assessing or altering the irrigation.
We now read the moisture, run off, EC slab, temperature, pH or light level within the crop every few milliseconds and alter subsequent irrigations continuously (with growers permission). This uses the latest glasshouse technologies within the field.
Various sensors are available to suit the growing methods of individual farms.
Supreme has progressed with the upgrades of the factory
Despite the difficult period, Supreme have progressed with the upgrades of the factory to make more automated the process of production and assembly. As we all know, investments are absolutely necessary in managing the speed of growth and the costs involved in this growth and clearly Supreme has stepped up to the challenge. We applaud these actions.
So customers, feel free to order as much material as you need and we should be better to place to satisfy your delivery requirements!
This is part of a larger plan to install more automation and robots throughout the production process along many of the product that Supreme offer.
Supreme have an ambitious 3 year road map which Penny UK are honoured to be part of. We have ambitions to double turnover with the existing range and new products as we know that Supreme are renown for quality and precision, backed of course by a great technical support team, the future is looking bright.
Senmatic LCC4 Climate controller
We recently commissioned Senmatic LCC4 to a well known horticultural plant producer. As seen on photos Full vent control for 4 compartments, automated programming based on crop requirements.
Climate control is the most important factor in order to grow premium quality horticultural plants. Couple this with the importance of efficient and responsible energy consumption, then a Senmatic LCC4 must be considered as the ultimate solution to meet all the demands of a modern horticultural operation. The user-friendly controller that can have up to 16 compartments. Outdoor weather station, greenhouse climate sensors as humidity, temperature, light, C02. Heating control, screen control, LED control and so much more.
Also the LCC4 is based on state-of-the-art technology and an advanced operating system and is therefore easy to update and expand with more functions and capacity.
We see Senmatic as the ultimate solution that any grower needs. A user clear friendly display will show each control zone on the nursery. With the ability to view graphs of all data collected by the computer through Superlink 6 Software. Overseeing the current and forecast weather, the conscientious grower will quickly and easily be able to see what is happening inside and outside the glasshouse.
If you are looking to step up your growing controls to be more precise, give us a call and we are happy to quote a fully automated system.
Penny UK report of new pre-punched pipe improvements
NDJ has developed a new punching and drill in the pre-punched pipe to improve the pre-punched holes in quality, security for no leakage and finally, facilitate in quicker assembling.
The new drill consists of having conical shaped holes, therefore:
1. The external outside diameter allows the dripper fit directly into the hole, minimizing the possibility of leakages, because bad assembling, and helping the entrance of the dripper to the drill, hence the assembling is easier and faster to the operators.
2. The internal diameter of the drill is clean, with the right size to hold the neck of the dripper.
This new developments test samples will be available soon from our warehouse for you to see and order.
Are you looking forward to a NL pre-punched pipe?
