USING SFA IN INLINE FERTIGATION
Easy and Accurate Application
If done right, using inline fertigation may be one of the fastest, easiest and most accurate methods of administering Soil Fertility Accelerator (SFA) and other such products to the landscape. As a reiteration, SFA needs to make contact with soil pretty quickly in order to adapt to its specific environment, which is why it must be flushed through on the “fast” setting. A residential size EZ-Flo inline fertigation tank will flush through completely on the fast setting with about 400 gallons of water per 1 gallon of tank. Other systems will have their own rates. By using an in-line fertigation method on a fast delivery setting you will ensure that those microbes are ready to go when they hit the soil.
We will now review an example with these parameters:
- A 2 gallon residential EZ-Flo fertigation tank flushes completely in just 800 gallons on the “fast” setting.
- For a monthly application of 6,400-12,800 square feet of planted area approximately 1 oz may be used.
EZ Flo Application Example
Step 1: Calculate Square Footage
As stated before- don’t stress too much on flawless precision dosage. These are living microbes whose populations fluctuate by the billions within a matter of minutes. Be close, be consistent. For most applications I recommend just assuming that your area is relatively evenly distributed square footage, and that your application rates are going to be the same for each zone.
Step 2: Calculate Zone Water Usage
Calculation Methods
There are two different ways to calculate the water usage for each landscape irrigation zone.
The first method is to calculate the water flow rate of each nozzle, and emitter and add them up to determine the total water usage per zone. I do not generally recommend this method unless you are an engineer with some extra time on your hands and are convinced that your landscape irrigation system is flawless.
The second method (and easier) method is to use the water meter to determine the water usage of each zone. Note: to get an accurate calculation you will need to make sure that you do not have any leaks in the irrigation system and all needed repairs are made prior to calculating water usage.
Tip! If you use the water meter to determine the gallons per minute you may want to start timing after you are sure that the system has fully pressurized. To do this write down your starting gallonage beginning at 10 seconds after you initiate the program and again at 70 seconds. This should accurately provide you with the gallonage per minute used for that zone.
Note: Because of the inaccuracy associated with the time it takes to pressurize a system an effort to achieve precise dosage will be an exercise in futility. Get it close. Be consistent. Don’t stress too much about calculating in the time it takes to pressurize the system.
Example
For our example using a 2 gallon EZ-Flo inline fertigation tank system we have decided upon the water meter method to calculate the following:
- Zone 1: The drip emitters are flow-regulated at 4 gallons per hour and there are 4 emitters per tree and 30 trees. It is determined that our drip emitters and water meter are consistent with each other and Zone 1 water usage is approximately 480 gallons per hour, or assume 8 gallons per minute.
- Zone 2: The drip emitters are flow-regulated at 2 gallons per hour and there are 1 emitter per shrub and 30 shrubs. It is determined that our drip emitters and water meter are consistent with each other and Zone 2 water usage is approximately 120 gallons per hour, or assume 2 gallons per minute.
- Zone 3: The back lawn sprinklers are all 15’ fixed arc popup nozzles. We shall assume that they accurately put out about 1 gallon per quarter circle. This lawn is a rectangle with four quarter circles and 4 half circles. Using the water meter method we have determined that Zone 3 water usage is approximately 12 gallons per minute.
- Zone 4: Again, using the water meter, we have determined that the front lawn water usage is approximately 10 gallons per minute.
- Zone 5: Again, using the water meter, we have determined that the garden area uses approximately 8 gallons per minute.
Step 3: Calculate Run Times
As we are trying to accurately divide up the amount of water that the tank needs to deliver to each zone we will use the previous calculations, which have added up to 40 total gallons per minute (assuming that they all ran at once). Divide 800 gallons by 40 gallons per minute (gallons needed to completely flush the tank – 400 gallons per gallon of EZ Flo tank size) = 20 minutes total run time.
Now divide the flow rates previously calculated into the 20 total minutes. Our results for the product application will be as follows: Zone 1 = 4 minutes, Zone 2 = 1 minute, Zone 3 = 6 minutes, Zone 4 = 5 minutes, Zone 5 = 4 minutes.
Step 4: Calculate Product to Apply
Standard dosage rates are about one ounce per 6,400 -12,800 square feet every 4-6 weeks.
If we have a 10,000 square foot property, but only about 7000, square feet planted out for the landscape, our application quantity could be about an ounce. If we have only 5000 square feet, and we are on a monthly application schedule then once ounce may last us two months.
Conclusion
Now Apply!
The dosage of SFA to be applied to the landscape may be initially reconstituted into a slurry of about 8 ounces of water per 1 ounce or less of product. Once the product goes into full suspension it will be ready to put into the tank. Note: there may be some particles that settle to the bottom and do not immediately fully dissolve. This is ok and not to be worried about. If the tank is already full of water, drain off half, pour SFA slurry into the tank, fill up the tank to the top. If your yard resembles the example, you may have SFA in your landscape in 20 minutes!
Soil Fertility Accelerator is revolutionary! While you can apply this through a backpack sprayer or hose-end sprayer, using an inline fertigation delivery process works great in scheduled maintenance routines for gardeners, landscape crews, homeowners, farmers, and horticulturists. Increase your soil carbon, water retention, nutrient density, plant hardiness, vigor, and disease resistance. Change your soil, Change your LIFE!
~Jason Tibbetts