#1: Watering advice needed

Posted on 2006-06-18 07:00:31 by Matthew Reed

I had the bright idea of putting some shrub bubblers through my garden for
water. Problem - my well can't put enough volume to run more then 4 of these
at a time. I use a well to water the garden, so I can't really use a drip
system that runs for hours at a time - I need to turn on the pump, water,
and turn the pump off. I thought of sprinklers, but for tomatoes and corn
they don't work because I have no way to put the sprinkler head 5 or 6 feet
up. But with a low volume pump, I either use some sort of sprinkler system,
or I spend an hour or so watering by hand.. My well can run 3 impact
sprinklers at about 20 psi, and that actually works well for stuff that
doesn't get very tall. I've thought of just figuring out how to put them
high enough to get the corn and tomatoes. So...any suggestions? What is a
good way to water with a (relatively) low volume pump? Oh, and the soil here
is such that water just soaks in. I grow my stuff in beds, but I can't flood
the bed because the water drains into the soil too fast.

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Mr Ad

Google

#2: Re: Watering advice needed

Posted on 2006-06-18 09:27:44 by vivekm1234

Hello, check this out:
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/mar292005/spt9.asp

It's a article on diffues irrigation using a mud pot. Mud pot's are
porus and leech moisture in to the soil..MInd you, i don't know if it
works so..

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#3: Re: Watering advice needed

Posted on 2006-06-18 20:17:40 by Lawrence Akutagawa

"Matthew Reed" <nospam at zootal dot com nospam> wrote in message
news:I6-dndn2C59IQQnZnZ2dnUVZ_sidnZ2d@giganews.com...
>I had the bright idea of putting some shrub bubblers through my garden for
>water. Problem - my well can't put enough volume to run more then 4 of
>these at a time. I use a well to water the garden, so I can't really use a
>drip system that runs for hours at a time - I need to turn on the pump,
>water, and turn the pump off. I thought of sprinklers, but for tomatoes and
>corn they don't work because I have no way to put the sprinkler head 5 or 6
>feet up. But with a low volume pump, I either use some sort of sprinkler
>system, or I spend an hour or so watering by hand.. My well can run 3
>impact sprinklers at about 20 psi, and that actually works well for stuff
>that doesn't get very tall. I've thought of just figuring out how to put
>them high enough to get the corn and tomatoes. So...any suggestions? What
>is a good way to water with a (relatively) low volume pump? Oh, and the
>soil here is such that water just soaks in. I grow my stuff in beds, but I
>can't flood the bed because the water drains into the soil too fast.

Why not acquire a holding tank/container of suitable volume, elevate it to
assure adequate water pressure, and pump the water into the tank/container?
Then when the tank/container is full or nearly so, turn off pump.
Tank/container volume should be such as to support minimally one watering
cycle.

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#4: Re: Watering advice needed

Posted on 2006-06-18 20:27:09 by Matthew Reed

>
> Why not acquire a holding tank/container of suitable volume, elevate it to
> assure adequate water pressure, and pump the water into the
> tank/container? Then when the tank/container is full or nearly so, turn
> off pump. Tank/container volume should be such as to support minimally one
> watering cycle.

I thought of that, but not sure it's worth the trouble and expense. I'd have
to basically put it on the roof to get the pressure I need, or build a tower
or something. When I lived in Saudi Arabia, we had a flat roof with a water
tank on the roof. We had to manually turn the pump on and off to fill the
tank. In the summer, the water tended to be luke warm because it was hot and
the tank was in the sun. That is the kind of tank I need!

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#5: Re: Watering advice needed

Posted on 2006-06-18 23:42:03 by Kay Lancaster

On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 22:00:31 -0700, Matthew Reed <> wrote:
> I had the bright idea of putting some shrub bubblers through my garden for
> water. Problem - my well can't put enough volume to run more then 4 of these
> at a time. I use a well to water the garden, so I can't really use a drip
> system that runs for hours at a time - I need to turn on the pump, water,
> and turn the pump off. I thought of sprinklers, but for tomatoes and corn

Are you worried about the long cycle time, or by the lack of pressure?
Do you have a pressure tank in the system? Have you considered an automatic
timer?

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#6: Re: Watering advice needed

Posted on 2006-06-19 02:56:42 by Matthew Reed

> Are you worried about the long cycle time, or by the lack of pressure?
> Do you have a pressure tank in the system? Have you considered an
> automatic
> timer?

Both. Because of the low volume, I can't use the bubblers I initially
planned on because my pump doesn't put out enough volume to maintain the
pressure. I can't flood the beds because the water soaks into the soil
faster then my pump pumps it. I'm currently using a couple of impact
sprinklers, which actually work very well, as my pump can drive 3 at 30 psi.
Once I get a permanent system in place I can put it on a timer- I figure a
standard lawn sprinkler timer would probably work, I think I can setup 4
zones to cover everything. I'm just not sure how to get the water to the
tall stuff like corn and tomatoes.

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