The Guerrilla irrigation thread: Automatic systems, selfwatering planters and more!

So backcountry,
I just reread this thread and wanted to get your opinion on my situation.

If you had a continuous creek and a nice plot of land below the creek, how would you set up a reservoir? I was thinking of having a 5 gallon bucket permanently in the creek with a valve linking to a hose. This hose would run down about 50 feet in a zigag shape (imagine irrigation canals) around my plants with small holes poked in the hose, giving them sufficient water. Gravity does all the work.

I am kind of confused at what to do in my situation. It would be a hassle carrying a 55 gallon drum on a 2 mile hike. And if this worked i would rarely have to come check on the plants.

If the creek is year round(never dries up), you could set up the system with no reservoir, do the bucket as you described, and use a watering timer on the line right before the irrigation system starts.

You only really need a reservoir if you anticipate being out of water at some point.

I got out the last couple of days to set up reservoirs in a hike in plot. Its in a great little canyon with very difficult access, it took me 4 hours of hiking back and forth to get all the reservoirs, 400' of poly line(to fill the rez from a seasonal creek) into the area. Another 4 hours to set up the reservoirs. One of the totes I was using sprung a leak in a weak point from the rough hike in, kinda a bummer after hiking in all that stuff.

I may still be able to place another rez, or I'll just go with 3 plant here. The good thing is I suspect that the creek I was using to fill may be year round upon more inspection, which means I'll be able to do easy refills if I need more water than stored down the road.

I was too busy to take many pics, I'll get more pics when I hike back in to dig holes, and check the rez for leaks. I'm amazed I didn't hurt my back!! LOL!!

Lots of people who have never grown weed are under the impression that you can just dig a hole,drop a seed in and the stuff just magicaly grows.There have never been any succcessful lazy pot growers.Im getting tired just reading this thread...lol...

BACKCOUNTRY said:

Use Long lasting Lithium batteries, they lasted from July to Sept no problem for me. But I would suggest changing them half way through the season to be sure.

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Alright that sounds good. Thanks. I'll be building my setup next week, Ill come back in here and throw some pics up.

Great thread BACKCOUNTRY, and great info.

I'm planning on doing a guerilla grow or 2 come spring.
I have been interested in the hempy bucket hydroculture type system for maximum water usage and great growth.

Here is a little design I drew up on paint quickly of something I have been thinking about.



The idea is based on the earthtainer design with a rez, air gap and something to wick the water up.

It consists of the bottom 10cm section cut from a 20l plastic paint bucket or something similar. Overflow holes are drilled 2cm from the top to supply a 2cm air gap. The 8cm section below holds 5l of water.
3 x 10cm sections of 110mm pvc tube drilled full of holes are the "wicks". They would have some sort of absorbent organic material in them to wick the water from the rez. Then a pvc sheet is placed over the top with holes for the wicks and drilled holes to allow water and air to past through the root system. The PVC sheet has three openings slightly smaller than the 110mm PVC tubes ID so as to use them, and the side of the rez as support for all the wet soil above.

The unit is buried just below ground level then a pre-measured length of heavy duty plastic sheet is wrapped around the unit to form a pot-like cylinder to hold soil. The plastic sheet is heavily perforated to allow for drainage and allow the roots of the hopefully rapidly growing plant to penetrate the plastic and grow into the surrounding natural ground.
Soil is then dumped into the plastic cylinder and dirt up around the sides for support.

Well, that's the idea...

I have just finished constructing a prototype and have it buried in the garden to see how it all works.
I'll put some pics up of the actual unit soon if it's OK.

All comments welcome, Ah.

Well here are some pics for those interested.

I dug it all up today after letting it sit for a while. It seemed to be wicking the water up nicely. The top soil stayed moist but the soil around the wicks was wet. The rez had gone down past the drain holes a little which shows it was wicking into the above soil.

All assembled. You can see the air gap above the water in the tubes.


This shows how it would be buried in the ground. I put it 3/4 down and built up a little mound.


Overflow holes drilled all around 2cm from the top to for an air gap.


This shows the PVC sheet I used. I glued 3 little pvc offcuts to the underside outer rim to act as retainers.


The 110mm PVC pipe sections with drainage holes. I only had these offcuts with the threaded ends at the time.


I made holes at the very bottom to try get every last drop of water.


Bottom section of a 20l paint bucket. 10cm high. Holds 5l.


The plan was to make everything able to fit in a large backpack.


Please anyone let me know any potential flaws they see with this design and ideas.
REgrds, Ah

Looks like a slightly different version of my Earth hole, have you taken a look at that thread? You should repost this over there, would make a great addition to that thread considering both ideas work on the same principles.

I'll be happy to see how this works for you over the summer, good luck!

Yes I have read that thread just recently. I was going for something a little more practicle for me but I'm thinking I need a bigger rez considering your using what looks to be a 20l bucket just for the wick.

We get good rainfall here in the summer but can often get some dry spells of a week or two, sometimes more. I'm hoping the plant can use the rain water instead of the rez water and only use it as a back up in dry weather. So hopefully no watering.

I'll go re-post in the other thread.
Regards, Ah

It looks like a very practical and easy to build design! The only possible problem I see is the potential size of plant you could grow in it. I may try a few of these with some late season plantings(June).

I also like the looks of African herbsmans idea, I think that may be what I try this year, small Earth holes. I'll just have to hope they can survive if I have to take off to work for a couple weeks.

This is the valley I hauled all the stuff into, that I mentioned earlier-



I found this while out on a drive in the hills looking for new plots. I was traveling a logging road that runs a long major ridge, when I decided to check out a old prospective site I never used from 7 years ago, this is down a another spur road which runs along a ridge that connects to the big one.
After driving down to the end of the spur road and looking around the south facing side of the ridge(where the old prospect was), I decided to look off the north side of the ridge, and into the valley pictured above. Its about a 500' drop from the top of this ridge to the bottom of the valley.

As I broke through the brush along the road so I could see, the first thing I noticed was the thicket of Red Alder trees(in this pic they are the gray looking bunch of trees at the tip of the dark green upside down triangle of trees). Red Alder is a moisture loving tree, they typically only grow by year round creeks, or in places where the water table is very close to the surface, a welcome site in my dry country!
As I was staring at this potential bounty of water in this hidden valley, I was able to also hear a actively running stream! This was all I could take, so I strapped on the scouting gear and proceeded to hike to the Alder grove. As I hiked I came across several wet areas that showed signs they may be wet year round, but with very little sunshine, still a good sign.
The country was treacherous to cross, even with no load, lots of downed trees, gullys, thorn vines, and general brush. When I arrived on site, I found a actively running stream, and a classic Alder "swamp", a place where ground water wells up probably year round, and potentially a year round source of water, very nice!

A few hundred feet from the swamp, down the drier hill side there was a nice place with long day sunshine for plants. I formed a plan, I'd establish 4 large reservoirs, one for each plant I intended to plant. I'd haul in 400' of light weight 1/2" poly pipe to transfer the water from the creek to the plots.

A week later I prepared my gear, 2-40 gallon totes, and 2-30 gallon totes were fitted with bulkhead adapters to allow hooking to a irrigation system, and all the organic fertilizers were measured and packed.

Here I am installing the Bulkhead adapters(also known as thru-hulls)-


Thats a whole Bulkhead adapter on the left, and another broken down into its parts on the right, the base, the rubber washer, a plastic washer, and the nut that tightens it all to a leak free connection.


First I drill a hole in the tote with a hole saw, just large enough for the nipple part of the base to stick through.


Now I seat the rubber washer on the base, over the nipple, and stick the nipple through the hole from the inside.


Now I install the plastic washer and then the nut.


Here is the unit all tightened up and ready for use! The adapter has threads inside the nipple so plumbing parts can be securely attached, in this case valves were installed at the plots.

Sorry, no more pics of the installation, I was so overwhelmed with the size of my project that I just didn't have time for picture taking, but I will take more complete pictures of the installation when I return to dig holes and make sure the rez hold water. I tested all the rez at home, but one sprung a leak after filling, I assume from a weak part of the molding splitting on the rough trip in, dang! I had to haul out he broken rez along with the 400' of poly line, I was moving slow when I finally climbed out of the valley that day.

I have all the fertilizers hidden near by, so I won't need to haul those in at least, did all that hauling in stuff the first day. I hope to get back next week to do final preparation before planting in early May. At that time I'll do a more complete pictorial.

i was wondering if i could connect the hoses and just put the hose in a stream instead of a reservoir?

I was just wondering if you could just have a resevoire high up and have the hose come down to a Oscillating Sprinkler with a Timer like this one and would that work?

Thanks

bump ... hope all is well BC!!!! all the best goin out to you brotha

Amazing thread. I go to Home Depot tomorrow to buy parts and set this up. Only problem is that I dont own a drill for the hole in the rez

nugga-boo said:

Amazing thread. I go to Home Depot tomorrow to buy parts and set this up. Only problem is that I dont own a drill for the hole in the rez

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Buy one from home depot and tell them that it didn't do the job cutting down the tree like the associate told you that it could!!!

this is a good basic thread on irrigation. good job. i think the rewervoirs are way tooo small if ur plants are going to be grown outdoors. each plant could potentially drink 40 gallons per day each if its getting lots of natural sunlight. Instead, i would use water bag reservoirs. they are easy to haul in, and they come in huge sizes. for example, you can pack in a 800 gallon collapsible water tank, as it only weighs 42 lbs.


http://www.watertanks.com/category/11/

these are my reservoirs, two 55gal drums buried 4ft deep
they will feed two of these http://www.amazon.com/Claber-8053-4...2?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1266221074&sr=8-2
one for each plot

not as complicated as your system, backcountry, but im sure yours will work better


peace&pot

hey guys, in the market for a deep cycle batt. my pump draws 5AH. any suggestions on what i should get, ill be running it once a month for about an hour. how big do i need to go for a charge to last 3 months?