The HPGen™ is both easy to install and to use. It’s connected directly to both the greenhouse run-off water treatment system and the irrigation system, and the HP Now unit is monitored online to make sure everything runs smoothly.“Dosing hydrogen peroxide into the irrigation system happens automatically,” Lindsay explains. “No extra effort required.”
Cleaner Irrigation
Hydrogen peroxide is known to combat biofilm in irrigation lines, so Lindsay expected the HPGen system to contribute to a cleaner irrigation system.
“I expected to see less biofilm in the irrigation mains, submains and laterals, but I was surprised at how quickly this occurred,” says Lindsay. “In the first three weeks of operation I noticed the mainline filters blocking more frequently, which indicated that the biofilm in the lines was being oxidized by the peroxide. While altering a mainline recently, I noticed far less biofilm in the section I checked. This will likely continue until we have clean mains, submains and laterals”.
Another added benefit of the Peroxide UltraPure generated by the HPGen system, is that it breaks down to pure water and oxygen. The extra oxygen molecule gives crops a boost.
Treatment of Drain Water
Root health is very important when growing hydroponically.
“Diseases such as Pythium can have a devastating effect on root health and thus production,” says Lindsay. “All irrigation drain water from our greenhouses is dosed with peroxide and then left to settle before being passed through a UV unit. This double redundancy system means that if one of those two systems ever fails, then we still have coverage from the second. This will allow us time to fix the broken system.”
