Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Installation
Growing in Containers
If you're growing your plants in containers or pots, installation is very easy. Simply place
the powered electrodes into the soil on either side of the plant that's being grown. If the
container is larger, perhaps up to three feet in length, the electrodes can be placed into the
soil on either side of the container, allowing the electric field to penetrate all of the plants
in-between.
Growing in the Ground
When it comes to trying out electroculture in the ground, it becomes more complicated.
First, the ground is not
homogeneous
. There will be different amounts and densities of
materials present under the ground. Any metals present will distort the electric field, too.
Furthermore, from an experimental point of view, the electric field is going to extend
beyond your experimental growing area, into the surrounding areas as well.
So if you apply an electric field to the ground, you can not only expect the crops you're
growing to be affected, but also the weeds, other plants, and nearby trees to be influenced
in one way or another as well. What this means is that it will be very difficult to determine
whether your control plants are affected or not because you will not know the extent of the
applied electric field.
One way of working around this would be to find two areas that are separated by a large
enough distance and perform the experiment in that way. What amount of distance is
enough? That's not an easy question to answer since the field will extend in all directions.
Factors that need to be considered include the source voltage, electrode arrangement,
electrode polarity, soil characteristics and moisture level. This would be an area of
experimentation. Once the location of both plots are determined, adjustments should be
made to make sure that both plots are as close to being the same as possible. In the outdoor
testsIandcloseassociateshaveperformed,wehaveobservedthatthefieldhasaneffective
range of about 10 to 15 feet from the main electrode line (i.e. the line connecting a pair of
electrodes).
In-Ground Electrode Configuration
When placing your electrodes into the ground, there are two electrode installation items to
consider:
1) Electrode dimensions 2) Distance between electrodes
