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Central Connecticut

I know some people mist their plants to prevent wilting, but does that misting replace watering? In other words do you mist long enough to wet the soil too?...Chris

4/25/2003 10:28:13 PM

porterville,california usa

in my patch i use a drip system for watering. i also use a misting system for cooling. i mist for only 5 minutes at a time. the soil is unaffected by the mist. i imagine the leaves may absorb some water from the mist, but i rely on the underground drip system to supply water and food to the plant.

4/25/2003 11:24:11 PM

Chico, Ca

80-90% of our water comes from misting, the rest from sprinklers. we also fertilize through our misting system.

4/26/2003 12:49:46 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Hey Chris,

I have a friend who moved to the Arizona desert. You can't go outside to sit on his patio in the summer. While the air is plenty dry, it's often well above 100*F. They now have micro-mist emitters suspended by the shade lattice over their heads all around the patio area. You don't get wet sitting beneath them. The idea is that as the mist evaporates while falling, the air is automatically cooled.
The trouble with this concept here in CT is the humidity in the summer time. I have a similar setup on my own deck. And while it certainly does cool the air, the humidity is usually so high that the air can't absorb enough mist
to stay dry when near the emitters. I don't know the humidity level that would render this system useful. Probably below 70% which is unheard of here in the summer.
It seems that every time the temperature goes above 85*F
here in CT, the air is already way
too burdened with moisture to get a good feel for the

rformance of the system. That's probably also why these emitter systems can't be found for sale around here. I'll probably have to retrofit standard irrigation equipment.

continued

4/26/2003 7:17:31 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Though low volume pesticide application nozzles would perform much better, I find the nozzles have to be located in a grid no more than 30" apart for best results. These would be suspended from cable or similar support system about 4-6' above the foliage. Then a temperature sensitive timer would cycle the system on & off with on cycles lasting for 30-60 seconds & off cycles lasting for 10 minutes or less for the entire time that higher than threshold temps are held. Just try to find any of this stuff for sale by the big irrigation companies.

I have a friend who is a heating & air conditioning energy expert who says he can modify a standard thermostat & irrigation timer to work the way I want. But I don't have time to pursue this right now.

I'll still be misting. But I think I'll have to step up the fungicide program. Powdery Mildew is going to have a field day if I don't.

Steve

4/26/2003 7:17:48 AM

Caceres, mid west of Spain

This year I will try to mist with the spray-sprinklers I am using for watering as well. The idea is to water continously for 15 min every other day (in the hottest days) in early morning. Then water (mist) during 3 min, each 30 min from noon till 7:00 pm. I can do it automatically as far as my timer-controller can be set to a 16 starts per day. I know I am wetting the leaves, but as the air here is very dry in summer and always keeps moving, I think this way could work better than the finer misters which don't get the water even to the leaves. If it doesn't work well, I will have to try a real misting ones, which I didn't prepare because everybody who knows about it here tell me that it only will work in a kind of enclosed space.
The cool days those 16 mistings will be avoided, and in the normal morning water, fertilizers, aminoacids and kelp will be added with a 1/2 inch venturi inyector (you can see it in my photo gallery) at the end of the watering.

Don

4/27/2003 1:45:16 AM

porterville,california usa

last year i made a temperature-sensitive on off switch to control my misting system. it would come on for 5 minutes then go off for 30 minutes until the temp would stay below the preset temp i chose.it worked pretty well but it had a few bugs in it. i think i have them about worked out now. this winter i designed a switch that comes on at a preset temp and stays on until the temp falls below a preset temp. i`m not sure but i think being on that long may cause an undesirable wet condition in areas with high humidity. i`m still testing that one.when i`m satisfied with their performance i`ll go public with the designs here on bp.com

4/27/2003 2:33:37 AM