Ebb & Flood Benches from Powerplants Australia
Ebb & Flood Benches offer the best, most uniform watering irrigation system available for greenhouses today. They can increase your effective growing area by up to 30%, while at the same time reducing your water use by up to 70% and your fertiliser by up to 30%. They can improve ergonomics and OH&S compliance as well. Ebb & Flood Benches are very popular with greenhouse growers in Europe, and could also be of great benefit to your bottom line here in Australia.
The Ebb & Flood Benches System Improves Your Greenhouse Plant Health
- At regular intervals set by the grower, the nutrient solution is automatically pumped from a dosing tank to flood the bench, and then is allowed to ebb away. This provides the crop with a continually refreshed nutrient source, that never becomes stale, precipitated or over concentrated. The runoff water is easily collected, then treated for re-use.
- The ebb & flood system of watering plants greatly improves plant health. Plant leaves & flowers stay dry, so overall greenhouse humidity is lowered and fungal disease is virtually eliminated.
- Vast amounts of essential oxygen is forced in and distributed around the roots. This invigorates the root system, reducing root disease and, most importantly, increasing crop growth.
The Ebb & Flood Benches Also Improve Your Bottom Line:
- The rolling bench system minimises unproductive aisle space, and growing space is increased compared to fixed benches. The rolling bench system allows you to move the access aisle anywhere from one side of the greenhouse to the other. This system turns unprofitable aisle space into profit-producing growing space.
- Rolling benches typically increase the useful area in the greenhouse from around 60% to 80% - that’s an increase of 33%!
- By maximising your growing space, you increase your crop yield per square meter, which, in turn, enables the bench system to pay back your greenhouse investment much more quickly.
- Reduce labour costs: A large portion of a greenhouse grower’s labour budget can be attributed to the cost of irrigating by hand. With the use of ebb & flood benches, irrigation can be fully automated, watering efficiency increased and labour costs reduced. An entire bench of plants can be watered simultaneously and evenly.
Reduce employee work & strain & improve Safety: Your employees will also benefit by having ebb & flood benches, as having the plants at the correct working height reduces the strain on their backs from constantly picking plants off the ground. Paths stay dry, eliminating slippery algae, reducing accidents.
- Reduce Water Wastage By using Ebb & Flood benches, wasteful runoff is minimal and the high costs of fertilisers can be reduced as all the water is collected and can easily be recycled.
Ebb & Flood Benches’ Specifications:
- Typical bench widths: 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 and 1.8m. Any length is available in multiples of 100mm.
- In-Concrete, On-Concrete or Floor-plate mounting Our benches are normally installed into the concreteground as a permanent fixture, or dynabolted to the edge of a concrete path. A new option is the Floor Plate design (see left), which offers flexibility not available with the conventional concrete method. It can be installed on almost any surface, such as concrete, gravel or weed mat. The Floor Plate system can be easily relocated when you are upgrading or moving your greenhouse. Leg heights are fully adjustable.
- Benchtops - Ebb & Flood or Galvanised Mesh Our Ebb & Flood bench tops are made from highly resistant, chemical-proof, ultra-violet light stable plastic, ensuring a long life, even under constant daily wear. The benches have an in-built channel system, ensuring that the bench drains away quickly after irrigation so the plant roots aren’t sitting in water. We can also manufacture Rolling benches with galvanised steel mesh instead of Ebb & Flood.
- Ebb & flood benches are ideal for fast growth crops Crops like cyclamen, poinsettia, potted colour and tomato seedlings benefit enormously from Ebb & Flood watering. The fast turn around of the crop makes the payback period very short.
- Our Ebb & Flood benches use the patented Quick-Valve. The Quick-Valve floods the bench to a depth of approximately 20mm, then quickly drains it.
- The Quick-Valve also provides automatic oxygenation of the nutrient solution during filling, and filling time can be varied according to the inside hole size. It is fast, reliable and labour saving
Find out how Ebb & Flood greenhouse water irrigation benches can improve your crops and save you money. Contact us today for a quote
