In the world of horticulture, maximizing plant yield and growth cycles are key to maximizing profit. For growing facilities seeking to optimize yields, continuously monitoring and maintaining nutrient levels in irrigation systems is fundamental. Traditionally, it has been expensive to send samples to the lab, and far more so to equip and staff one of your own. Furthermore, both result in delayed reaction time, requiring several days of waiting for the analysis to be completed. This process of testing nutrients has been labor-intensive, prone to human error, and most of all, time-consuming. However, a groundbreaking solution has emerged: the CE-Line, an automated in-line nutrient analysis unit poised to revolutionize greenhouse management.
The Technique – Capillary Electrophoresis (CE):
At the heart of the CE-Line system lies a sophisticated laboratory technique known as Capillary Electrophoresis (CE). This analytical method separates ions based on their ionic charge strength as they travel through a capillary tube, allowing for precise and rapid analysis of a wide array of individual macro and micro nutrient concentrations.
In a typical CE setup, the capillary is filled with an electrolyte solution. When an electric current is applied across the capillary, ions within the sample migrate towards the oppositely charged electrode. As these ions traverse the capillary, they experience varying degrees of resistance based on their charge, size, and shape. This results in different migration rates, effectively separating the ions along the length of the capillary. As the separated ions pass through, they are measured by a detector, which records their arrival times and intensities. This data provides precise information about the composition and concentration of ions within the sample.
How the CE-Line Works:
The CE-Line harnesses the power of Capillary Electrophoresis into an automated, real-time, in-line system that is tailored for greenhouse operations.
The unit is plumbed directly into a bypass of an irrigation supply and/or return line; automatically opening a valve to draw a specified volume of water from the pipeline and purging it through the system to ensure a representative sample. These samples can be collected from up to 8 separate input sources, providing a comprehensive analysis of all the major points in the water system, including multiple irrigation recipes, leachate, and/or over-drain return flows. Therefore, you can measure what nutrients are going to the plants, as well as the level of uptake they are getting.
Upon collection, the instrument runs the CE method and automatically processes the data according to the initial calibrations of the water source. Following each test, the unit undergoes an automated post-run cleaning procedure. This ensures that the system remains clear and ready for the following test, reducing the need for regular maintenance. The only human intervention required will be the replacement of liquid reagents once a month. The process, from sample collection to the end of cleaning, takes under one hour. Allowing you to receive real-time nutrient levels on an hourly basis – up to 8 times a day, from up to 8 sources a day, with 95% accuracy.
This data delivers a wealth of actionable insights to greenhouse operators. The CE-Line measures a very wide range of macro and micronutrients including NH4, K, Na, Mg, Ca, Cl, NO3, SO4, HCO3, PO4, Fe*, B*, Zn*, Mn*, Mo, and Cu*. Upon measuring the levels of the nutrients of interest, the results are securely stored to the cloud. This cloud stored data is confidential and visible only to you, and has API connections that enable seamless integration with participating climate control and nutrient injection systems, providing the potential for immediate adjustments of nutrient balance based on consistent nutrient analysis.
(*These nutrients are not currently automated, but will be available soon)
Previously, growers would have to collect samples themselves and send them to a lab. Between shipping, scheduling, testing, human error…retesting, data processing, etc., it could take as much as a week or more to receive results. By this point, a system’s nutrient levels may be completely different from the time of sampling. Any adjustment made from this data would be inaccurate and result in an imbalance of nutrients. With CE-Line, results are received within the hour. So, adjustments can be made according to where nutrient levels are now – not where they were a week ago.
Beyond providing more time-relevant data, the CE-Line provides more data points in a system’s nutrient trends overall. This enables you to even track how nutrient levels fluctuate over the course of a single day, giving growers unprecedented visibility into nutrient trends. By rebalancing nutrient levels in real-time, greenhouse operators can ensure consistently optimized conditions for plant growth. This leads to not only an optimized yield, but also a superior quality of produce, giving growers the opportunity to truly optimize their profitability.
If you are interested in learning more about CE-Line and how it could be implemented into your own operations, contact the DRAMMwater team here.
