Fertigation: How Does It Work?

Plants get oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon from air and water. The rest of the organic and mineral elements they use from the soil, and if they are lacking in the soil — from the outside, with the additional application developed by people. Fertigation is a method in which the necessary nutrients are introduced into the soil with irrigation.

What is fertigation? It’s a technology based on the application of water-soluble fertilizers, therefore providing an optimal amount of micro and macronutrients, which come to the plants simultaneously with the irrigation water. Such simultaneous irrigation and fertilization allows the application of a balanced amount of fertilizers, taking into account the physical condition, growth phases, and the introduction of other nutrients for agricultural, horticultural, and ornamental crops.

Advantages of Fertigation

Compared to the traditional fertilizer application technique, fertigation has a number of undeniable advantages. The fertigation method allows to:

• Apply nutrients at any stage of the growing season, including late plant development phases, which is not possible with traditional fertilizer application methods
• Maintain optimal levels of nutrients in the soil, taking into account its absorption capacity, plant species, weather conditions, and other factors
• Apply fertilizers with maximum efficiency, avoiding overuse or misuse
• Mitigate negative impacts on the ecosystem, including groundwater contamination, as well as soil salinization and leaching
• Eliminate accumulation of nitrates and other substances hazardous to plant health
• Use complex solutions containing several types of fertilizers with different physical and chemical characteristics, including the level of hygroscopicity, granulometric composition, the degree of caking, etc.
• Significantly reduce the percentage of nutrient leaching from the soil.

The benefits of fertigation also include the reduction of soil quality requirements. With the advent of the method of drip irrigation, farmers have the opportunity to use previously unsuitable land for growing plants. Now, many crops can be harvested even on sandy and saline soils, as well as on slopes.

Types of Fertigation Systems

Fertigation can be performed in different ways. Let’s go through two main types of hydroponic systems it uses — active and passive.

In passive systems, the solution flows into the substrate from the tank below in response to capillary forces. The fuse located under the root sucks up the solution. This technique is good for plants that grow very slowly and not suitable for fast-growing flora.

In active systems, the nutrient solution is constantly circulated with the help of various pumps. There are quite a few varieties of active systems, but they are variations of a few basic ones. The most common ones are flooding and drip irrigation. 

In a flooding system, the substrate is periodically flooded with nutrient solution. Timers connected to the pumps are used to observe the necessary periods of flooding (draining).

A drip irrigation system is the most popular among growers. Its principle is simple: a timer-controlled pump delivers solution into tubes connected to the root zone of each plant. The excess solution gets into the substrate and drains into a container for reuse (reversible system). If you increase the timer time to values where the plants have time to fully absorb the solution, the system becomes non-reversible.

Overall, despite the different principles of work, both systems require high-quality water for the fertigation to be successful.

Fertigation With Satellite Data

Knowing how fertigation system works it becomes obvious that each of them has a wide array of customization features to enable growers to apply fertilizers and water in the most effective way. And here is where satellite monitoring comes into play. The thing is that different zones of the field can have different nutrition needs, which depend on soil condition, type of crop, its growth stage, fertilizer grade, and many other factors. Satellite imagery analytics is one of the ways to evaluate the needs of each field area for fertilizers. 

For instance, EOSDA Crop Monitoring provides a zoning feature that enables Variable Rate Fertilizer (VRF) application. Basically, this digital instrument allows for mapping the need for nutrients in each field zone to enable farmers manually set an appropriate amount of fertilizer for every field zone.

Accurate fertilizer distribution also relies on favorable weather conditions. To avoid related issues, EOSDA Crop Monitoring platform provides a fourteen-day weather forecast so that specialists can plan fertigation more efficiently. Therefore, satellite data available via this software makes fertigation easier and more precise.