Ultraviolet (UV) light is a very effective method of water disinfection in greenhouses where it is often used to disinfect drain water (run-off) of soilless cultures before re-use.
Water for horticultural purposes has to be “scrubbed” free of plant pathogens, including bacteria, fungus spores, viruses and/or nematodes. Some plant viruses are very difficult to kill and some fungi produce ‘survival structures’ designed to withstand all sorts of difficult conditions.
Re-used drain water can contain high concentrations of plant pathogens, so it must be thoroughly disinfected, much more rigorously than water for human consumption or rain water.
The solutions developed by bestUV apply a specific UV dose, depending on the type of microorganisms present in the water and their impact on the growth of the plant.
The general recommendations for pathogenic microorganism control in drain water are:
- 100 mJ/cm2 UV-C for water containing bacteria and nematodes
- 150 mJ/cm2 UV-C for water with fungi
- 250 mJ/cm2 UV-C for water with viruses
bestUV systems use powerful medium-pressure (MP) UV lamps (sometimes called ‘high-pressure lamps’). The result is a compact system requiring fewer UV lamps. These systems perform typically better than UV systems with multiple low-pressure UV lamps in the horticulture setting.
best UV systems also are precisely monitored.They display the actual UV dose (mJ/cm2) as a function of UV-measurement and flow rate. Automatic lamp power adjustment and quartz sleeves cleaning are standard with these systems.
These built-in features make best UV’s medium-pressure UV systems very effective and reliable for drain water treatment in horticulture.