For a limited time, the report is completely free at mistkits but will soon be a paid product carried at the store.

Also, stay tuned for an even better report revealing how your misting system using the DIG 5006-IP timer can operate without electricity available at all! Yep, no outlets nearby? No problem! (Hint, NO it is not a generator!)

One of the largest suppliers of plants to nurseries across the country chose a DIG 5006-IP misting timer. How do I know this? Simple, I sold it to them! I was quite shocked when the order was placed to find Monrovia Nursery one of my customers; pleasantly shocked though.

So if the 5006 propagation timer is good enough for Monrovia, that tells me it is a good, reliable timer.

To get a good understanding of how many mist nozzles you can use per zone with your mist system, you have to do a little groundwork first. This is not a 100% accurate method, but will work for you to get an estimate of the number of nozzles you can use. This method assumes you are connecting your misting system to an outside spigot, are using schedule 40 pvc water piping, and will be operating only one zone at a time. If you plan on operating two misting zones at one time, complete these steps and divide the number of misting nozzles by 2 to get an idea on how many misting nozzles per zone you can use.

First you need to determine your water pressure, your flow rate at the spigot you will attach your system to, and lastly determine the size of the pipes that are delivering the water to your misting nozzles. When figuring the flow rate, stick with one unit of measure throughout the entire process. If you choose gallons per minute, use the gallons per minute number for all calculations.

How to figure out your water pressure.

You must first gather the components needed to build a simple pressure gauge that will attach to your spigot. See the following picture to see the one I made and to get an idea as to what components will be needed and how to assemble it. I purchased a hose adapter that attaches directly to the spigot and has 1/2 ips female threads on the other end. I then purchased a 100 psi gauge that had 1/8 ips male threads. I then had to purchase two more reducing fittings to adapt the gauge to the garden hose adapter. Be sure to use pipe thread sealant on all threads when assembling the components.

Parts needed

Assembled pressure gauge

Pressure gauge in use

To get the water pressure at the spigot you must first be sure everything that uses water in your home is turned off. Dishwashers, clothes washer, faucets, etc. all need to be off. Install your new pressure gauge on your outside spigot. Next, turn the water on at the spigot and note the pressure reading. Gather pressure readings throughout the day and write them down. We will be using the lowest pressure reading you took. The ideal water pressure for your misting system will be between 30-50 psi. Lowers pressure will not deliver enough water to your misting nozzles and may result in poor performance. Too high water pressure will result in stress on all your components and may cause failures of solenoids or misting nozzles. Booster pumps can be used for pressures that are too low and pressure regulators can be used for high water pressures.

How to figure out your water flow rate.

NOTE:While gathering the flow rates, You should calculate everything as gallons per minute (GPM). To convert gallons per hour (GPH) into gallons per minute (GPM) simply divide the number by 60.

The flow rate is the ultimate determining factor on how many misting nozzles you can use per zone. The amount of water that can flow through your water pipes at any given time is called the flow rate, and is usually given as gallons per minute(GPM) or gallons per hour(GPH). Larger pipes can allow more water to pass through them than smaller pipes, and most homes have a mixture of large and small pipes, so an accurate test at the spigot is needed. You need to determine how much water can pass through your outside spigot that will be supplying the water to your misting system. Each misting nozzle is designed to deliver a given amount of water and you need to determine how much water your spigot can supply to determine how many mist nozzles can be used.

Find a bucket that will hold at least one gallon of water. Add one gallon of water to the bucket. The best way to get an accurate gallon is to use a milk jug or similar container, fill it and transfer the water to the bucket. On the inside of the bucket, place a mark at the one gallon mark. Dump out the water and hold the bucket below your outside spigot. You will be opening the spigot all the way and timing how many seconds it takes to fill the bucket to the gallon mark. Divide the number of seconds into 60. This is your flow rate in gallons per minute (GPM). If you figured gallons per hour (GPH), divide your number by 60 to convert it to GPM. Write these flow numbers down.

On average, a 3/4-inch hose can deliver 23 gallons of water per minute, while a 5/8-inch hose allows 17 gallons per minute. Determine your hose size and write down your garden hose flow.

Next, take a good look at your water delivery piping for your misting system, and use the piping size chart to determine it’s flow rate.

Now that we have a bunch of numbers written down, here is how we are going to use them to determine how many misting nozzles we can use per zone on our misting system:

Compare the flows of your spigot GPM, your garden hose GPM, and water piping GPM for your misting system. Choose the lowest of the numbers. This is the maximum flow in gallons per minute(GPM)of your misting system and we can now use this number to determine how many misting nozzles can be used per misting zone.

Find the flow rate of your misting nozzles. If you are using Dramm nozzles, consult this mist nozzle chart. If you are using misting nozzles from a different manufacturer, you will need to reference the literature that came with the nozzles, do a Google search for the info, or call the manufacturer for the flow rate. Using the chart, find the flow rate of the mist nozzle you are using. Note that the charts give the flow in gallons per minute (GPM). If your nozzle flow is given in GPH, convert it to GPM by dividing the number by 60.

Take the lowest flow number of your system that you determined earlier and divide it by the flow of a single misting nozzle. This resulting number is the maximum number of misting nozzles you can use per zone.

Here is a quick calculation to help show how it is done:

Pressure: 40 psi

Flow rate at spigot: 10 GPM (600 GPH)

Hose flow rate: 5/8= 17 GPM (1020 GPH)

Water piping flow rate: 3/4 PVC=8 GPM (480 GPH)

Remember to convert all GPH figures to GPM!

The pressure is within tolerance so you do not have to do anything.

Of all the flow rates, the piping is the lowest at 8 GPM, so that is the figure you need to use.

Referring to the nozzle charts on the Mistkits website, you find that the Green Pin Perfect misting nozzles flows 1.08 GPM at 36 psi.

Now, divide 1.08 into 8 to get 7.4. So this means that you can safely use 8 (I rounded up) misting nozzles per zone as long as you only operate one zone at a time.

So looking at these figures, if you wanted to increase the number of misting nozzles your mist system can use, you could simply increase the water piping of the misting system to 1″, and you could then increase the number of nozzles per zone to 10 because the spigot now has the lowest flow rate of 10 GPM, which equals roughly 10 nozzles per zone.

Remember, this is a basic calculation and is to be used to get an estimate of how many nozzles can safely be used given your water flow rate. Don’t be afraid to experiment, but be sure not to make permanent changes until you are absolutely sure of the outcome. You may find that you can use more nozzles than this calculation suggests, or in some cases, you may need to use less.

The biggest benefit to a battery operated timer is quite obvious; electricity is not needed. This allows the propagator to have misting beds far away from any electric outlet. You do have to supply water to the system, but that can be accomplished with a simple garden hose, but…

Battery operated misting timers are few and far between. A quick Google search does turn up a few but take a look at the specs and the prices of some of them. Most cannot mist the frequencies that are needed for rooting cuttings and one unit that can costs a measly $480! Are they serious?

Most homeowners who propagate plants for fun or a bit of extra cash and startup nurseries need something a bit more affordable. Enter the DIG battery operated timers, namely the DIG 710 series propagation timer. This is a timer anyone can afford. For about $90 you can purchase a misting timer that can be programmed exactly as you need it for misting your cuttings. That sure beats the $480 one huh?

Click The Picture To Purchase a DIG 710.075 Single Station Battery Operated Misting Controller

• Digital timers include the 24 hour timer, interval timer, and transformer in one small unit. You need to purchase a 24 hour timer, interval timer, and transformer for the mechanical system and when connected together, use up much more space.
• Digital timers can control 6 individual beds/zones, all with different durations and frequencies. Mechanical timers can control 1 zone and regardless of how large it is, the bed all gets the exact same amount of mist regardless of the plant’s requirements unless different misting nozzles are used throughout the entire zone.
• Digital timers immediately convert 110 volt household current to a much safer 24 volts. Every part of the digital misting system including the timer is low voltage, and extremely safe to work on. The 110 voltage that a mechanical misting system that uses Intermatic type timers is carried through both timers to the transformer where it is then converted to a lower and safer 24 volts.
• A digital misting timer has a battery backup that retains the timers program in the event of a power failure. When the power is restored, the timer is intelligent enough to know whether it needs to begin misting immediately or wait until the next day, resulting in little human intervention. A misting system that is controlled by mechanical timers has no feature that can determine whether it should begin to mist. Mechanical timers MUST have electricity at all times to be able to keep track of the time. When the power is interrupted , the timers clock stops working and will only resume when the power is restored. For lengthy power outages, this can be a disaster. When the power is restored, the timer will continue to run as if the power was never interrupted . Your cuttings may receive mist during the evening or other times when they should not. Using mechanical timers to control your misting system requires the human operator to frequently check to be sure the system is running correctly.
• Digital misting timers are MUCH less expensive than just ONE of the mechanical misting timers. The DIG 5006-IP timer can be purchased for roughly half of what the two mechanical timers cost.
• The DIG 5006-IP can be used to control more than just your misting system. I currently use mine to turn my lights on and off automatically. I did this by simply adding a relay.

Click The Picture To Purchase a DIG 5006-IP 6 Station Electric Misting Controller

Many customers have contacted me asking how they can use their misting timer to control other devices. They want to use the built in reliability of the timer to automatically turn on or start items that use standard 110 volt electricity. What kinds of items are they asking about?

• Do you have a greenhouse that you want the lights to come on at a certain time?
• Do you have a small water pump that you want to be controlled by your timer?
• Do you have a water fountain that you want to turn off at night?

These chores and others can be accomplished by purchasing a simple device that gets wired into the system. This device is called a relay, a $17.00 item at my local electrical supply outlet.

What is a relay?

Well, I will let Wikipedia tell you what a relay is, but this is what they can be used for:

• Control a high-voltage circuit with a low-voltage signal, as in some types of modems or audio amplifiers,
• Control a high-current circuit with a low-current signal, as in the starter solenoid of an automobile,
• Detect and isolate faults on transmission and distribution lines by opening and closing circuit breakers (protection relays),
• Time delay functions. Relays can be modified to delay opening or delay closing a set of contacts. A very short (a fraction of a second) delay would use a copper disk between the armature and moving blade assembly. Current flowing in the disk maintains magnetic field for a short time, lengthening release time. For a slightly longer (up to a minute) delay, a dashpot is used. A dashpot is a piston filled with fluid that is allowed to escape slowly. The time period can be varied by increasing or decreasing the flow rate. For longer time periods, a mechanical clockwork timer is installed.

• Isolate the controlling circuit from the controlled circuit when the two are at different potentials, for example when controlling a mains-powered device from a low-voltage switch. The latter is often applied to control office lighting as the low voltage wires are easily installed in partitions, which may be often moved as needs change. They may also be controlled by room occupancy detectors in an effort to conserve energy,
• Logic functions. For example, the boolean AND function is realised by connecting normally open relay contacts in series, the OR function by connecting normally open contacts in parallel. The change-over or Form C contacts perform the XOR (exclusive or) function. Similar functions for NAND and NOR are accomplished using normally closed contacts. The Ladder programming languageis often used for designing relay logic networks.
  • Early computing. Before vacuum tubes and transistors, relays were used as logical elements in digital computers. See ARRA (computer), Harvard Mark II, Zuse Z2, and Zuse Z3.

The first point; using low voltage to control a higher voltage, is what we are interested in. Using the low voltage timer to turn on higher voltage devices is exactly what we want to do.

Which relay should I purchase to use with my misting timer?

Good question, and one that I am not qualified to answer. I am not an electrician so I cannot tell you which relay to purchase. I myself had to call a licensed electrician for advice. He asked me what I was controlling with it so he could recommend a relay that can handle the voltage and more importantly, the amperage. When I told him I wanted to control a few lights, he calculated the amperage, and what he told me to get is a “relay in a box” , also called a RIB.

• This relay uses 10-30 volts AC (the low voltage part of the relay), which is perfect for use with the DIG 5006-IP misting timer because it has an output of 24 volts AC.
• This relay controls 120 volts AC, which is standard household voltage in the US.
• The relay is a single pole double throw which is what I need to turn my lights on and off.
• The relay is rated for 10 amps, plenty for the few lights I want to control.

When I told him I would be controlling three 60 watt bulbs, he used the following formula to figure the 3 bulbs would be using about 1.5 amps which is well below the 10 amps the relay is rated for.

Formula: Watts/Volts = Amps

So, three 60 watt bulbs equals 180 watts

180 (watts) divided by 120 (volts) (actually 110, but using the 120 the relay is rated for) =1.5 amps

So using that formula, I could safely use the relay to control six 60w bulbs (the electrician figured that all out, not me!). At this time, I have no intention of adding three more bulbs so I am safe using that relay.

When consulting the electrician on which relay you should purchase, be sure to tell them the exact devices you want to control, and be sure to stick with your plan. Also be sure to let them know if you plan on adding devices at a later date. They will let you know how many and what kind of devices you can safely use. Do not assume you can just keep adding more lights, fans, pumps, or whatever to the circuit. Drawing more than the rated amperage may damage the relay, or worse, cause a fire. It would be much safer to just purchase a new relay to use for the new devices.

The relay I purchased to control my lights

The relay I purchased is a RIBU1C. The great thing about this relay is the fact that it can be controlled by multiple input voltages, 10-30 volts AC or DC. This means that if you have a misting timer that has an output of 24 volts DC, which is the most common voltage used to operate a solenoid, you can use this relay to turn your lights, fans, etc on and off. Another great feature is that it has a light to indicate that the relay is being activated by the timer.

Figuring out the wiring

I have to be honest and tell you I know just enough about electricity to get me shocked or killed. I can replace outlets, switches, lights, and other stuff, but when it comes to figuring out how to correctly wire up something like this relay, I am stuck. I mean, take a look at the number of wires sticking out of the bottom of that thing! I looked at the wiring diagram that is on the relay, but I had no idea how to properly wire it. I took it to a friend of mine who is a licensed electrician, and in five minutes he had explained how I need to connect the wires to control my lights.

With this relay, I will have 24 volts AC operating the “switch” inside the relay that will allow the 110 volts AC (household current) to pass through and to my lights. Looking at the diagram, I needed to use the White/Blue (10-30 volt AC/DC) and the White/Yellow (Common) wires. These wires are to be connected directly to my misting timer (DIG 5006-IP) under one of the numbered “zone” screws and the common “C” screw respectively.

NOTE: The relay will be considered a zone by the timer. This relay has another wire that is White/Black but this wire will not be used at this time.

The other wires that will be used are the Orange and Yellow. The Yellow being the common wire and the Orange because it will carry the power once the switch in the relay is activated. This is called a normally open circuit, meaning that there is no power being delivered to it without the switch being activated because the contact is normally open. The Blue wire MUST be capped of when not being used!

To make this a bit easier to understand, think of a light switch. When the switch is off, the electrical contact inside it is open, not allowing electricity to pass. When you flip the switch to the on position, the contact inside closes, allowing the electricity through and to your lights. The relay works exactly the same way, if the timer does not send a signal to the relay to flip the switch, the lights will remain off. When the timer sends a signal to the switch, electricity is allowed to pass on to your lights, turning them on.

Another even simpler way to look at what normally open means is this: you have two wires and each has the ends stripped to the bare copper. One wire comes from an outlet and the other goes to a light. If you do not touch the two bare wires together, the light will not turn on (normally open). However, once you touch those two bare wires together you have closed the gap and allow electricity to pass which will turn on the light. NOTE: Do not actually try the bare wire example, you could get a nasty shock!

See the following picture to see how a light switch works and it’s relationship to the bare wire example:

So to be clear, I used the White/Yellow and White/Blue wires to go to the timer and the Orange and Yellow wires to go to the lights.

How I mounted the relay

Take a look at the following picture:

Notice that I used two separate electrical boxes that are attached by a small nipple, then mounted the relay on a box? I did that to keep the lower voltage (24 volt) and the higher voltage (110 volt) separated. This make things safer and easier to work on. These items can be purchased at any local hardware or home improvement store. Remember, these boxes are NOT waterproof and will need to be installed in a safe location.

The following picture also shows the relay mounted on an electrical box and that box attached to another with an electrical nipple. I have let the wires fall outside the boxes so you can get a better view of them.

How I wired the relay to the misting timer and lights

I took the White/Blue and White/Yellow wires and passed them through the left box and through a clamp I installed in the bottom of the box. The White/Black wire will not be used so I simply coiled it up inside the box.

Next, I ran the Yellow, Orange, and Blue wires through the nipple that connects the two boxes together. I capped off the Blue wire with a wire nut because it will have a constant supply of power and I do not want it to come in contact with the box itself, and coiled it inside the box.

I then installed wire clamps into the bottom of both boxes and took the wire that goes to my lights and brought it into the box on the right, cut it, and stripped the wires. This may need a bit more explanation for some, so I will show a diagram of what I mean. REMEMBER to turn off the breaker, unplug the cord, or whatever else you need to do to make sure no electricity is passing through the wire before cutting it and running it into the metal box!

Wiring the lights to the relay

Next I started to connect the wires. I made sure the power to the lights was OFF and even better, I turned off the breaker!

Working in the electrical box on the right, one of the bare copper wires was wrapped under a screw in the bottom of the box and then the two bare wires were wire nutted together. The White wires were also wire nutted together.

Next, the Blue wire was wire nutted. No wires were connected to it, I simply twisted a wire nut onto it and tucked it into the box. This wire MUST have a wire nut on it to prevent it from shorting out and possibly giving someone a shock!

Next, I took the Orange wire and connected it to one of the Black wires with a wire nut. I then took the Yellow wire and connect it to the remaining Black wire with a wire nut.

Wiring the misting timer

The misting timer was the easiest part of all the wiring. I simply removed the cover to the timer and wired it like this:

I used the two wires that came out of the bottom of the left electrical box. This is the White/Blue and White/Yellow wires. The White/Black wire was tucked into the box because it was not used. The White/Yellow wire was placed under one of the screws marked “C” on the left. The White/Blue wire was placed under one of the numbered screws on the right. This number corresponds to the zone the timer will be turning on and off.

See the following picture to see what the wiring now looks like:

All that is left is to program the zone to turn the lights on and off, and install covers onto the boxes!

After programming the correct zone, (detailed instructions for programming the DIG timer can be found at Mistkits) I sat back and waited for the timer to turn on the lights. After a minute or two, I heard a click from the relay and saw the red light was on, indicating that power was now getting to my lights. I then looked at my lights and saw that they were on. Success! (The following pictures shows the red light on. I took it before mounting the relay to the electrical boxes.)

DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed electrician and these instructions are for educational purposes only. Be sure to seek the advice of an electrician before attempting to wire your own relay!

Click The Picture To Purchase a DIG 5006-IP 6 Station Electric Misting Controller