diff --git a/lib/sequel/adapters/postgres.rb b/lib/sequel/adapters/postgres.rb
index b1218524ec..74880a64a3 100644
--- a/lib/sequel/adapters/postgres.rb
+++ b/lib/sequel/adapters/postgres.rb
@@ -218,14 +218,16 @@ def initialize(*args)
       # client encoding for the connection.
       def connect(server)
         opts = server_opts(server)
-        conn = Adapter.connect(
-          (opts[:host] unless blank_object?(opts[:host])),
-          opts[:port] || 5432,
-          nil, '',
-          opts[:database],
-          opts[:user],
-          opts[:password]
-        )
+        connection_params = {
+          :host => opts[:host],
+          :port => opts[:port] || 5432,
+          :tty => '',
+          :dbname => opts[:database],
+          :user => opts[:user],
+          :password => opts[:password],
+          :connect_timeout => opts[:connect_timeout] || 20
+        }.delete_if { |key, value| blank_object?(value) }
+        conn = Adapter.connect(connection_params)
         if encoding = opts[:encoding] || opts[:charset]
           if conn.respond_to?(:set_client_encoding)
             conn.set_client_encoding(encoding)