Automatic greenhouse irrigation

When Patrick Derksen, maths and engineering teacher, looks out of the engineering room at the Gesamtschule am Forstgarten, he sees the school garden and the gardening club’s greenhouse. He knows from private gardening experience how much work watering plants can be. At the Gesamtschule am Forstgarten, things are made even more difficult by the fact that there is not always someone on site due to weekends and holidays. During the school holidays, teachers who live nearby take care of the plants. For example, with the rainwater that is collected in 2,000 litre containers.

At some point, with the garden in view and the technical equipment behind him, he had the idea of addressing topics from the lessons and letting the pupils experience them in practice. Couldn’t the greenhouse be watered automatically? With the collected rainwater?

Self-autonomous irrigation on demand

In the ninth grade, students learn how to programme an Arduino as part of their engineering lessons. An Arduino is a microcontroller board for special control or monitoring tasks with connectors for connecting electronic components such as sensors. Patrick Derksen’s idea is to link this learning unit with a real-life project. He is supported by his wife, Caroline Derksen, who also teaches maths and technology at the Gesamtschule am Forstgarten.

“We will work with the students to design a system in which collected rainwater is used for automatic irrigation. It is controlled by an Arduino and powered by a solar panel with a battery. With the help of humidity sensors and several irrigation lines, we want to water different types of plants as needed in the existing greenhouse.” Some initial experience has already been gathered with a small irrigation model. This principle is now to be transferred to the large greenhouse.

Bringing sustainability to life

The project is intended to serve as a visual and practical example, particularly for students at the Gesamtschule am Forstgarten, of how technology can be used to grow food in a resource-saving way. Patrick Derksen explains: “Pupils from the technical courses and the gardening club are involved in this project. They determine the optimum position and orientation of the solar panel, work out the ideal humidity level for the plants and design the control programme. They also help with the practical installation and maintenance.”

Aiming for greater scale

The Klever Birne prize money can be used to purchase the necessary hardware. Patrick Derksen names a few examples: “These include an Arduino, solar panel, battery, humidity sensors, pumps and irrigation hoses.” And he already has the next project in mind: “With the experience gained here, irrigation can be extended to other areas of the school garden in the future.”