IrriGator Product Manual
Understanding Our Product
The Benefits of Using IrriGator
The IrriGator system improves soil conditions, which in turn promotes garden performance. The water and nutrient carrying capacity of the soil in the root zone is significantly improved, resulting in vigorous growth and enhanced plant colour and yield.
All plant growth originates at the roots (at the newest root tips less than 10 days old to be more specific). These root tips facilitate water and nutrient uptake, which allows hormone formation inside the plant.
There are three hormones that regulate root and shoot growth. These hormones are cytokinin, auxin and gibberellic acid.
Cytokinin is made in the root tips and migrates upward in the plant where it stimulates shoot growth. This strong shoot growth causes the formation of auxin, which in turn travels to the roots and stimulates strong root growth.
Cytokinin and auxin together create new cells that contain gibberellic acid, which controls and influences the size of these new cells.
Whilst the use of our system brings about huge improvements in plant and garden wellbeing, the benefits to the wellbeing of those that the garden surrounds are even greater. Some of these benefits are outlined below:
- Improved air quality due to O2 production and CO2 absorption
- The increased root mass and the use of a water retention agent prevent nutrient leaching and therefore algal blooms in waterways
- Decreased surface run-off and an increase in irrigation and rainwater absorption means less waste to storm water drains
- Creates a much needed cooling effect in highly paved areas
- Dampens sound and noise
- Getting outdoors first thing in the morning exposes you to sunlight prompting melatonin production waking you up and increasing energy levels
- Gets the family outdoors more - it gets kids playing outside and reduces the possibility of vitamin D deficiencies
- Offers a fantastic entertaining area for guests
- Positively contributes to the streetscape and improves property valuations
- Improves mental health by acting as a calming influence, reducing stress and generating happiness and a positive outlook on life
It is no wonder that beautiful gardens are generally associated with a greater quality of life. Our products greatly reduce the hassle and perceived chore of maintaining a beautiful garden.
Our products cannot do it all, but they do free up the enjoyable aspects of gardening - growing lawn, flowers, vegetables, herbs, fruit and so on. The avid gardener is blessed with additional benefits as outlined below:
- Pride and a sense of achievement
- Exercise and physical health
- An outlet for creativity
- Developing the virtue of patience
- Provision of healthy food
- A stress reliever, especially for those with a busy schedule
- And many more
The IrriGator System
Our system consists of an Applicator (the installed hardware) and GelBlocks (the garden treatments). A GelBlock is placed into an Applicator, which is installed into your reticulation or irrigation system. On each watering day, the irrigation water partially dissolves the GelBlock to continuously condition the soil and promote garden performance.
The Applicator
The Applicator is installed directly into the irrigation line - be it reticulation, a garden hose or a drip line. There is a removable lid on the top of the unit, which allows retrieval of the basket housed inside in order to replace GelBlocks.
The GelBlocks dissolve gradually with the flow of water, treating the irrigation water every time it is used. When installed into a reticulation system, the Applicator is installed between the control and solenoid valves to ensure that all watering stations receive treated water.
The Applicator is made of high grade PVC capable of operating effectively over the full range of pressures expected to be encountered across a broad range of irrigation systems. All PVC parts are Class D, and rated to 900kPa.
The Applicator has no moving parts and can be expected to survive the life of your reticulation system. The quality of the installation is the limiting factor in the life of the Applicator.
The GelBlocks
Our GelBlocks are scientifically formulated to maximise the amount of water and nutrients present in the critical root zone of the soil. Not only this, but we work to provide plants with a greater range of nutrients, trace elements and bio-stimulants.
It is not simply a matter of getting more nutrients to your plants, as deficiencies of numerous key nutrients, trace elements and bio-stimulants can severely reduce the achieved potential of plants by limiting hormone formation.
A barrel metaphor (illustrated below) explains this point rather well. The shorter slats in the barrel (deficiencies) allow water to escape, limiting the barrels ability to store water -and so deficiencies limit a gardens ability to grow, achieve vibrancy and endure stress.
Our GelBlocks simultaneously and continuously combine the effects of the following four treatments:
- A wetting agent used to break water surface tension and increase the depth of water penetration whilst reducing surface run-off and evaporation effects.
- A water retention agent used to increase the water-holding capacity of soil. Typically mixed with soil prior to planting and difficult to use on established plants.
- Specialist fertilisers that boost the range of nutrients available to plants beyond typical top dressing fertilizer treatments.
- Concentrated seaweed extract and other such treatments that provides a great many trace (but vital) nutrients, elements and bio-stimulants.
The water retention agent used in GelBlocks is a PAM (polyacrylamide) product that does not absorb, but dissolves in water. Thus it does not compete with plant roots for the water present in the ground. As the PAM dissolves it extends laterally and holds water and nutrients around the root zone for up to 8 weeks before fully biodegrading. PAM has been used in agriculture for over half a century.
Bio-stimulants include compounds, substances and microorganisms that operate through different mechanisms to fertilisers (and are therefore complementary) to improve plant vigour and tolerance to stress. Bio-stimulants are naturally occurring in various seaweeds.
Microorganisms, such as bacteria can process dead matter and negate the effect of thatching and the need to vertimow lawns. Such healthy soils are usually indicated by the presence of earthworms.
It is the combination and constant delivery of these treatments that makes GelBlocks and the IrriGator system so effective. To achieve the same level of effectiveness using standalone treatments would require several rounds of each treatment throughout the year. The cost of which would be several times the expense of GelBlocks, as well as a significant sacrifice of time and flexibility in the garden.
Nutrient analysis, %w/w:
- Nitrogen, N - 6.42
- Phosphorus, P - 1.3
- Potassium, K - 2.3
- Sulphur, S - 1.1
- Magnesium, Mg - 0.13
- Iron, Fe - 0.046
- Manganese, Mn - 0.003
- Boron, B - 0.001
- Copper, Cu - 0.001
- Zinc, Zn - 0.001
- Molybdenum, Mo - 0.003
The Program
Our GelBlocks are designed to take care of your garden throughout the year, and are replaced monthly in a typical 100m2 garden. It works with the fertiliser regime you already use although we advise using a regime that is lower dose and more frequent, rather than high dose and infrequent.
The program is designed with ease of use in mind, so that there is no need for dosage calculations on gardens that are bigger or smaller than 100m2. The GelBlocks dissolve with the flow of water and naturally, larger gardens will use more water and dissolve the GelBlocks at a greater rate. Their effect is long lasting as the water retention agent biodegrades in a gradual manner. Simply replace your GelBlock within a couple of weeks of the Applicator becoming empty and your garden will continue to benefit from these lasting effects.
We advise checking the very first GelBlock inserted into the Applicator fortnightly so that you may determine how long GelBlocks last in your garden. It may be 6 weeks for smaller gardens and 2 weeks for bigger gardens, but if you replace your GelBlocks regularly you will establish a root zone of soil whose water and nutrient carrying capacity has been vastly improved.