Elevate strawberry system is a new type of strawberry planting system, which is increasingly chosen by growers due to its efficient planting mode.

Elevate strawberry greatly improves the efficiency of land use per unit, effectively isolates the planting gutter caused by land pollution, and allows effective management of its own planting density and area. Elevated grow system is the core technology of lift strawberry cultivation, which is the effective combination of modern industrial development and agricultural production. In this post, we will analyze and explain in detail the driving principle and experience technology of lifting strawberries.

Driving system for elevate strawberry system

Base fixing on the truss

Before the installation of the elevated strawberry mounting system, the traction drive system of the lifting strawberry needs to be installed to the truss beam using the greenhouse professional base. The overall power transmission of the lifting strawberry is provided by the rolling tube, thus we need to install the round tube bearing base on the truss first .These tube bearings are available in various forms, generally we use custom shaped bearings and standard UCP bearings for the reel base, which are mounted above or below the lower truss beam, or on the side truss.

Power transmission from motor

After the installation of the bearing base, we will install the rolling pipe inside the bearing base, the rolling pipe usually choose 48*2.75mm or 32*3mm hot dip galvanized round tube, through the shrinkage or use external holding parts connected to become one general pipe to the drive motor, the drive motor will generally be installed to drive the middle of the rolling pipe to both sides of the uniform output drive, the output of power is generally to the sprocket output for traction mode.

Drive force commutation to the verticle

When the driving force of the motor is transmitted from the motor output to the both ends, we install the winding barrel for tightening and relaxing the wire rope on the reel, because the hanging height inside the greenhouse is different and the diameter of the reel is different, usually the type of the reel used is also different, and the material of the wire rope used with it is also different in diameter, but the combination of the winding barrel and the wire rope basically realizes the commutation transmission of the power, which basically builds the basic structure of the lifting strawberry planting system.

Lifting method (moving or fixed pulley)

Before installing the wire rope to the winding barrel, we also need to confirm the installation method of the wire rope set, mainly refers to the dynamic pulley set and the fixed pulley set. As we all know, when using the dynamic pulley set to lift heavy objects (planting system), the lifting power is only half of the fixed pulley to lift heavy objects, but its lifting rate is halved at the same time, if the single planting gutter length is long, it is more appropriate to choose the dynamic pulley mode, but its lifting speed will be 50% slow.

Power conversion for elevate strawberry system

Hanging system structure

Same as the hanging gutter grow system, the lifting strawberry requires the hanging of the cultivator to a certain height above the ground, which is mainly determined by the type of grow gutter used. When using a strong grow gutter, such as a steel continuous grow system, you can use wire forming to hang the gutter directly. When other softer planters are used, or when a steel frame is used to hold the substrate, other custom system will be used, such as pallets, nylon fixing blocks, etc.

Height adjustment mechanism

The same as hanging grow planting system, we also need to install the height adjustment mechanism on the hanging grow system, and its installation composition is also more diverse, we usually directly hydraulic press the wire rope screw on the hanging wire rope and use the conversion hook to achieve suspension or directly press the flower basket bolt to the wire rope to achieve height adjustment function.

Height adjustment function is very important in the soilless cultivation planting system, when the cultivation gutter drainage slope composition is wrong, poor drainage, water inside the cultivation gutter will cause the crop roots water to much and growing death.

Diverse planting way for elevate strawberry system

After the driving system and power conversion system is determined, it is necessary to choose the most critical planting system, which is divided into three types according to the type of planting gutter and substrate container type selected for the crop.

Planting gutter system with additional substrate container

Planting gutters with additional containers are more mainstream, the advantages of planting control and large-scale planting are more prominent, you can achieve precise irrigation and management, while in the pest isolation and chemical airproof stage can be more convenient, at the same time, the degree of aesthetics and health and cleanliness is also more obvious. At present, the steel planting gutter with continuous cultivation pot planting mode is the much more widely used.

Grow gutter with bulk substrate

This planting method is more cost-effective, mainly saving the substrate container used in the gutter planting. However, this planting method is constrained by the gutter section, and more often than not, the drainage of the bulk substrate inside the gutters needs to be solved, so it should be carefully considered when choosing. At present, some growers use PP planting tank and steel planting gutter together, solving the problem of high investment cost of the container, while taking into account the drainage of the tank.

Non-woven fabric with steel pipe skeleton

This planting method is fundamentally different from the use of rigid planting gutters, which use soft substrate bags as containers to directly load bulk values into the planting gutter. During the operation of the lifting system, the traction system transmits the motor power to the gutter skeleton through the linkage with the gutter round tube skeleton, thus realizing the up and down traction of the planting tank.

Fertilizer irrigation and waste liquid recycling for elevate strawberry system

Water and fertilizer irrigation

Unlike traditional ground support or hanging cultivation system, the water and fertilizer irrigation pipeline in the lift system mainly extends from the middle of the grow gutter to both sides, and the water supply pipeline is usually arranged at the lower edge of the truss beam in the middle of a single planting gutter to irrigate the crops precisely from top to bottom.

Waste Liquid Recovery

When using planters to grow crops, injection molded parts or sheet metal parts are usually installed at the end of the planting gutters，to form a downstream outlet where the liquid converges to the lower end of the gutter. These drainage hoses usually consist of long corrugated hoses that follow the gutter during the lifting and lowering of the grow gutter itself , thus achieving the drainage function.