I've used the red ones and the green ones
-
Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
-
Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!
IRRIGATION DEBATE! Drippers Vs Sprayers
- Thread starter Double F
- Start date
I ordered 3000' of 2" poly pipe to run my gravity water down to the farm it's going to be here tomorrow.
There's enough pressure here to need a regulator like this http://www.senninger.com/senninger-...e-master-regulator-extended-flow-limit-valve/
I want to try to get the state to expand my water right to allow for storage and power generation.
There's enough pressure here to need a regulator like this http://www.senninger.com/senninger-...e-master-regulator-extended-flow-limit-valve/
I want to try to get the state to expand my water right to allow for storage and power generation.
They hate it pretty much
These bubblers work great http://www.sprinklersupplystore.com/Hunter-PCB-Bubblers-Nozzles-s/683.htm they screw onto a 1/2" nipple and the top unscrews to adjust the flow rate. They are like large drip emitters.
LOL. yea they do .. I had a car sales person ask me if i was trying to pay with drug money last time i went to a car lot lmao .... thinking about getting a fast flashy drug dealer style car with a loud stereo to deliver my product in.
Get a 78 Monte Carlo on bags and wire wheels. They have big trunks.
.jpg)
Even if you have a legitimate business , tax returns , and good credit if you're young and have money you get discriminated against.
I should have used a 6" pipe for my overflow ,
Used a 4" , have a 2" upper relief but didn't put it in low enough.
There is enough pressure that it's shooting 2" of water 2 feet out of the main outlet
I can't wait to see the google earth update of my place being ultra green among all the tan...I'm going to run water all over and irrigate everything and anything I can.
We want to put in some redwoods lol..
Used a 4" , have a 2" upper relief but didn't put it in low enough.
There is enough pressure that it's shooting 2" of water 2 feet out of the main outlet
I can't wait to see the google earth update of my place being ultra green among all the tan...I'm going to run water all over and irrigate everything and anything I can.
We want to put in some redwoods lol..
Tell him you got the money from stripping at all male parties. Tell him the last party was for a guy who was dying from aids. Then see what he says when you try to hand him the money.
The 1840s...
analogcricket
Member
furrywall11
Member
I'm finally getting down to putting in irrigation.. got to, my girls are drinking 20 gallons/day already. Since this is my first year doing mounds and irrigation (smarties and hand watering the last three years) I don't like one method over another.. I just want to do what works well. My buddy is saying I should use soaker hoses spiraled around my 8' wide mount in 2" spacing all the way to about 6" from the base of the plant...says I should do it under the rice straw and because there is a 3, 5 and 10 foot drop on my three pads with 50 mounds total I should get a timer that does multiple zones so as to get an even watering on each pad... it all sounded good until I googled soaker hoses and read that you shouldn't go more than 100' of hose or the pressure drops off.... I figure I'll be using 100 feet of hose on my first three plants so having pressure differences that fast would not be good... Does anyone have any experience with soaker hoses they want to share?
Go to drip works and buy inline drip emitter tube 1/2" diameter 9" dripper spacing
I use 200 gallons smart pots as well. I usually hand water them but this year I want to set up an irrigation system. My first concern was dry spots and after reading this thread my concern is real. I use clean spring water on my plants and have pressure for days. So I don't think I'll have a problem with clogs but it is pretty windy where I'm at. Sprayers sounded intriguing at first but I think I'll go with drip lines. since I really don't want to worry about dry spots what set up would you guys recommend? this is an awesome thread for newbies to read thanks guys!!!
furrywall11
Member
Good question, Hoodie... I think we're in the spot with trying to figure out irrigation for the first time.
I just bought 10 500 foot rolls of 1/2" drip line with 1 gph inline pressure compensating emitters at 9" spacing..a few 500' rolls of 3/4" tube for the mainline.. as well as a ton of elbows and crosses... a sand filter..pressure gauges..a four zone orbital timer...fittings...shut off valves... all at dripworks.com...fifteen hours a week standing there with a water wand is motivation enough to jump into the deep end of the pool.
I got a question for someone that's willing to drop some knowledge bombs... How many times would you spiral around your roughly 8 x 8 mound (1.5 yards- roughly 18" in the center tapering down to 1") to avoid getting dry spots? or would it be better to make a square with elbows?
I just bought 10 500 foot rolls of 1/2" drip line with 1 gph inline pressure compensating emitters at 9" spacing..a few 500' rolls of 3/4" tube for the mainline.. as well as a ton of elbows and crosses... a sand filter..pressure gauges..a four zone orbital timer...fittings...shut off valves... all at dripworks.com...fifteen hours a week standing there with a water wand is motivation enough to jump into the deep end of the pool.
I got a question for someone that's willing to drop some knowledge bombs... How many times would you spiral around your roughly 8 x 8 mound (1.5 yards- roughly 18" in the center tapering down to 1") to avoid getting dry spots? or would it be better to make a square with elbows?
Put 65ft per mound
TheOutlawTree
Active member
Can anyone recommend a good read or expert 215 irrigation guy in the gold country area?
I have a perfect spot for gravity feed and plan on doing 36-42 400g planters this year. Last year I had a 500g reservoir but I figure Ill up it to 1000g this year just to be safe. I could easily hand water again.... but I don't see a reason not to set up drip irrigation and make things easier for me.
I figure ill run 2" PVC from my well to my reservoir, and than 2" going out of the reservoir down toward the garden. It would be nice to be able to water all plants at once but not sure there would be enough pressure from gravity. I would imagine I would set up some sort of split off the 2" pvc that would alow each line or zone to be turned on or off.
I have a perfect spot for gravity feed and plan on doing 36-42 400g planters this year. Last year I had a 500g reservoir but I figure Ill up it to 1000g this year just to be safe. I could easily hand water again.... but I don't see a reason not to set up drip irrigation and make things easier for me.
I figure ill run 2" PVC from my well to my reservoir, and than 2" going out of the reservoir down toward the garden. It would be nice to be able to water all plants at once but not sure there would be enough pressure from gravity. I would imagine I would set up some sort of split off the 2" pvc that would alow each line or zone to be turned on or off.
Wow so there's a lot to all of this.
First off with soaker hoses. Flat soaker hoses last longer, handle more pressure and pack up way smaller. Regular soaker hoses only last one season. Next season will be 3 for my flat hoses. Drip along tubing works great too but I'd do 6 inch spacing. And by that I mean each emitter I'd spaced 6 inches down the line. As far as coil spacing I'd try to not go more than 6 inches.
I have 125 feet of hose per 800 gallon smart pot, which are about 8.25 feet in diameter. That spaces the hoses coils at 5 inches and works great. I try to keep them back fab out 6 inches from the stalk. I put the first 50 footer on first to conserve water until the plant is big enough and then put the 75 footer on later.
If you want to conserve water and not get dry spots you must use an intermittent water cycle. I have 6 rows of 6 pots. Each row gets the water on for 10 minutes. So that's 10 minutes on, 50 minutes off. I do that until I have 2 cycles with visible run off. Sometimes it still takes all day but it's not hard to go switch some valves every 10 minutes.
your manifold lines should be larger poly and have no dead ends. This means you make a loop. I used 5/8 because it's easily found locally. Each row of 6 six has a loop of this around them. Then off that loop I used 1/2" poly to make little distribution lines from the loop to the hoses. The step down in diameter helps keep pressure up. The lines to the soaker hoses alternate from which side of the loop the come from. To supply those loops I have a short 5/8 piece of poly going into each end of the loop, this all helps with even pressure and more flow. Those short pieces that feed the loop come off a 1" pvc.
I'm rocking about 40-60 psi with 3 bladder pressure tanks and about 60+gpm 5 hp well pump, its agricultural zoned here so I get the big pumps. Everyone's situation is different and you might have to do more smaller zones to get an even drip off the the hoses. I feel like 125 feet is pushing it though but it works, I wouldn't go any longer than that for sure. Unless of course you made smaller zones and plumbed in a second line to the other end of the hoses instead of capping it.
Gravity is hard to get pressure. Most tanks are a stock 2". Try to get one with a bigger port or you can custom cut and fit one on later. The trick to getting pressure up with gravity is how they did the conden water cannons for strip mining back in the day. Go bigger to smaller. An example would be 20' of 4" then 20' of 3.5" then 20' of 3" and so on. The weight of the water in the larger piping pushes more on the water in y he smaller piping and creates pressure. The best I've seen for gravity feed is the drip along tubing with 6" spacing.
There's also this drip tape stuff now. I've never used it but my neighbor did and it works great for squares. You just have a Main header/manifold piece of poly across the top and run the drip tape down in little strips from the poly pipe. Takes some time to set up but he did great with it last year and sure saved a lot of time holding hoses.
Try to get your tank as up hill as possible. Using the gradient pipe step down technique works better with more distance and height. You can even build towers for them to sit up on.
First off with soaker hoses. Flat soaker hoses last longer, handle more pressure and pack up way smaller. Regular soaker hoses only last one season. Next season will be 3 for my flat hoses. Drip along tubing works great too but I'd do 6 inch spacing. And by that I mean each emitter I'd spaced 6 inches down the line. As far as coil spacing I'd try to not go more than 6 inches.
I have 125 feet of hose per 800 gallon smart pot, which are about 8.25 feet in diameter. That spaces the hoses coils at 5 inches and works great. I try to keep them back fab out 6 inches from the stalk. I put the first 50 footer on first to conserve water until the plant is big enough and then put the 75 footer on later.
If you want to conserve water and not get dry spots you must use an intermittent water cycle. I have 6 rows of 6 pots. Each row gets the water on for 10 minutes. So that's 10 minutes on, 50 minutes off. I do that until I have 2 cycles with visible run off. Sometimes it still takes all day but it's not hard to go switch some valves every 10 minutes.
your manifold lines should be larger poly and have no dead ends. This means you make a loop. I used 5/8 because it's easily found locally. Each row of 6 six has a loop of this around them. Then off that loop I used 1/2" poly to make little distribution lines from the loop to the hoses. The step down in diameter helps keep pressure up. The lines to the soaker hoses alternate from which side of the loop the come from. To supply those loops I have a short 5/8 piece of poly going into each end of the loop, this all helps with even pressure and more flow. Those short pieces that feed the loop come off a 1" pvc.
I'm rocking about 40-60 psi with 3 bladder pressure tanks and about 60+gpm 5 hp well pump, its agricultural zoned here so I get the big pumps. Everyone's situation is different and you might have to do more smaller zones to get an even drip off the the hoses. I feel like 125 feet is pushing it though but it works, I wouldn't go any longer than that for sure. Unless of course you made smaller zones and plumbed in a second line to the other end of the hoses instead of capping it.
Gravity is hard to get pressure. Most tanks are a stock 2". Try to get one with a bigger port or you can custom cut and fit one on later. The trick to getting pressure up with gravity is how they did the conden water cannons for strip mining back in the day. Go bigger to smaller. An example would be 20' of 4" then 20' of 3.5" then 20' of 3" and so on. The weight of the water in the larger piping pushes more on the water in y he smaller piping and creates pressure. The best I've seen for gravity feed is the drip along tubing with 6" spacing.
There's also this drip tape stuff now. I've never used it but my neighbor did and it works great for squares. You just have a Main header/manifold piece of poly across the top and run the drip tape down in little strips from the poly pipe. Takes some time to set up but he did great with it last year and sure saved a lot of time holding hoses.
Try to get your tank as up hill as possible. Using the gradient pipe step down technique works better with more distance and height. You can even build towers for them to sit up on.
Oh and btw, I like the hoses on top of the straw mulch because I feel if helps wick better. If you were using synthetic mulch then sure put them under. The hoses have gotten sun bleached a little the last two years but the material is still strong.
I also got them at walmart, the devil, 50' was 10$ and 75 was 15$
I also got them at walmart, the devil, 50' was 10$ and 75 was 15$
And I will also say that over the last 5 years I've seriously tried it all. I'm fucken serious, every irrigation technique and product out there, except the drip tape but I've seen it work right next door.
I'm turning you guys onto a lot of experience from me mainly fucking up, killing plants, getting shitty yields, tearing down the garden and rebuilding it every year, and re doing the irrigation a few times each year. I'm glad to say I'm dialed and set now, but the fucken politicians decided to try to ban outdoor now!
I've done filters as well and they are needed with emmiters. They steal half your pressure and flow which is why I went back to soaker hoses. The flat hoses were a god send!
I'm turning you guys onto a lot of experience from me mainly fucking up, killing plants, getting shitty yields, tearing down the garden and rebuilding it every year, and re doing the irrigation a few times each year. I'm glad to say I'm dialed and set now, but the fucken politicians decided to try to ban outdoor now!
I've done filters as well and they are needed with emmiters. They steal half your pressure and flow which is why I went back to soaker hoses. The flat hoses were a god send!
Sensiranch
New member
I'm looking for exactly the same in the foothills of Calaveras County. If anyone has a good recommendation please let us know.
Just use your brains..Get an irrigation controller, some valves , read the diagram and run out the wires to the controller and batteries for the valves and controllers and then run a 2" main line and you can break off to 3/4" to service about 6-8 plants depending on how much flow you need.
