Automatically controlled multi-channel intelligent fertilizer applicator, water and fertilizer integration apparatus for greenhouses main buyer country

To be honest, when I hear about “smart greenhouses”, I first check to see if they simply mean a set of sensors with a Chinese controller. At Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC, we had cases when clients from the same Kazakhstan allegedly orderedAutomatically controlled multi-channel intelligent fertilizer applicator, but in fact they received a system where the dosage was calculated using average formulas without taking into account the real electrical conductivity of the solution. It’s a classic mistake to think that automation solves everything, when in fact the key is calibration for a specific crop and water.

Why omnichannel is not always a panacea

In 2022, we conducted an experiment with tomatoes in the Astrakhan region. The customer insisted on a six-channel system, saying that feeding should be divided according to growth phases. But when analyzing the water, it turned out that the local well gave a hardness of 400 ppm, and three of the six channels were simply not used - mixing fertilizers in this situation was risky. It was necessary to redesign the circuit into four channels with priority for calcium nitrate and chelates.

By the way, aboutwater and fertilizer integration apparatus– many still confuse it with conventional dispensers. The difference is that true integration involves dynamic recalculation of EC/pH after each application, rather than simply proportional mixing. In our company, for such cases, we use a protocol with feedback from sensors in the drainage, but this only works if the filtration is appropriate.

This is especially critical for greenhouses with drip irrigation - somewhere the dripper gets clogged, somewhere the pressure jumps. Once in Uzbekistan, it was necessary to urgently install duplicate highways because the algorithm did not have time to compensate for differences in the branches. Conclusion: multichannel is needed only when there are actually dissimilar power lines, and not because “that’s what the catalog says?”

Pitfalls of automation in the CIS countries

The main buyer country for such systems is conditionally Russia, but in fact it is often Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Belarus. The specificity there is that in winter there may be interruptions in electricity, and in summer there may be interruptions in the Internet. Ourintelligent fertilizer applicatorwas originally designed with backup power and local logic, but in 2021 there was an incident in Nur-Sultan when the calibration coefficients were lost due to a power surge. Now we are putting additional protection on the analog inputs.

Another point - water. In the Krasnodar Territory, for example, food often comes from the river, where mineralization changes sharply in the spring. If the system does not know how to quickly rearrange the proportions, it can be “burnt” in a day. young shoots. Once I had to manually make adjustments to the program, although according to the documents the device itself was supposed to compensate for such fluctuations. It turned out that the EC sensor was installed too far from the mixing point.

From experience, I will say that 70% of problems with automation are not related to electronics, but to hydraulics. The samewater and fertilizer integration apparatuscan calculate proportions perfectly, but if there is an air lock in the line, everything goes down the drain. We now always recommend installing air vents immediately after pumping groups, even if this is not provided for in the design.

Case: refurbishment of a greenhouse complex near Chelyabinsk

In 2023, the old Dutch system was remade at the state farm, where they had previously worked on manual control. There was an interesting task - it was necessary to keep the existing mixing tanks, but add automatic control according to a schedule and according to drainage readings. We made a hybrid circuit: our controller controlled the valves and injectors, but took data from old sensors (we had to install signal converters).

The most difficult thing turned out to be setting up synchronization between the channels - cucumbers and tomatoes require different feeding periods, and the pumps are common. We had to introduce priorities and time quotas. By the way, it was then that the “smart reservation” function appeared. in our firmware - if one channel failed, the system redistributed the load to the others.

Result: savings in fertilizers by 18% due to the fact that there was no need to pour “just in case?”. But I admit that the first two weeks there were constant glitches due to the fact that the staff was used to manually turning the valves. Conclusion: automation is meaningless without training. On the website https://www.lyzhihuinongye.ru we now post video instructions specifically for greenhouse growers, and not for engineers.

What the specifications don't say

No manufacturer mentions thatmulti-channel intelligent devicerequires weekly filter washing even with clean water. Especially if phosphorus fertilizers are used, they leave sediment in the tubes. Once in Tatarstan, in a month of work they lost 30% of their throughput because of this.

Another nuance is the compatibility of fertilizers. Automation cannot determine that when mixing magnesium sulfate and calcium nitrate, a precipitate will form. You have to prescribe prohibited combinations in advance. We in Shandong Lingyao have even developed a compatibility chart for 140 types of fertilizers, but it still has to be adapted to local brands.

And yes - never use regular PVC pipes for mains with an acidified solution. There was a case when, six months later, a pipe corroded at the junction with a brass fitting. Now we recommend only polypropylene or stainless steel for aggressive environments.

Prospects and limitations

Now we are experimenting with predictive algorithms so that the system itself suggests adjustments based on weather and historical data. But so far this only works for closed soils with a stable environment. There are too many variables in outdoor greenhouses.

The main direction of development is reducing the cost of installation. Often the cost of installation exceeds the price of the equipment. We are trying to make modular solutions that can be assembled like a construction set. For example, a base unit with 4 channels with the ability to add sensors.

If we talk aboutgreenhouse solutionsfuture - I see potential in hybrid systems, where some decisions are made by AI, and some remain with the agronomist. Full automation is not yet justified - too often emergency situations arise where human experience is needed. But as a tool for routine operations, our device has already proven effective in 37 farms from Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk.