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

Slap up some pics.

I can get some shots when the girls go out mid june.

HEY FOLKS!!

Have you seen the watering tubes at homedepot?
THey are 14$ and round,green and you fill an let drip!
looks kinda cool since they are green already......
Maybe hold 15 gallons water not shure?
Good for a few good plants!!(HUGE donut balloon thing)

anyone think one of these could work as a ressy? would be perfect for those super back country ops. just roll it up and stick it in your pack.
http://www.winterpoolsupplies.com/cgi-bin/shopper.exe?multipreadd=action&keys=594009,594111

I love those earthboxes. My Mom used to have a couple of them as her b/f worked for the company that produced them. I'm not sure but I think that somebody in my family might have worked on developing those to tell you the truth. They were a local product, that's for sure. I remember that they worked really well. I'm not positive but I think the plastics company that actually produces them is straight Mafia from what I remember. Whatever though, they have a quality product and customer service. I wouldn't personally buy them though, those one's were a gift and the individual whom I think was involved in their design disappeared w/ them one day. I'm pretty sure he put them to good use

I really think that this person that I'm referring to and his buddy who now works at Rodale developed those earthboxes while doing outdoor back in the day. Don't quote me on this, but it's a definite possibility. His buddy, my friend as well is a horticulturist/weed scientist at Rodale and does Graduate work for money. Must be nice.

hey bc how do you hide that big rez? could you burry it?

If you are talking about the 200 gallon one I built, it is actually built in the ground.

Thank you for making that picture. This is the exact same thing i am using this year. 10 drip system irrigation with an auto timer on the line. 55 gal resevoir should last about 20 days.

Sometime back, I recommended a game camera at Backcountry's suggestion, to a couple of growers as a way to know if their had been vehicle traffic near their site while they are away. This was a big issue at one particular spot and the idea worked great.

At the end of our first year of drought, I got a visit from one of them. He asked me, " that guy that suggested the game camera, he got any good ideas for watering systems?" Well, it just so happens.....

I provided him with BC's drawing on page 1 which he used and praised all summer. By the end of the summer, we had made some adaptations and the grow was a huge success. He sends his deepest regaurds. You would probably be suprised to know some of the geographical areas that your ideas have impacted.

backcountry,

I have 2 questions on this subject:

I've recently been looking into growing on land that is at least 6-8 hours from my usual location, and wondering if there is a way to make such reservoirs that refill themselves so I only need to attend such a location possibly 3 times in the growing season. I've been looking into some of your posts, and am just a bit confused. First, if I use a syphon effect to fill my res (Which I assume occurs when water leaves my res it will suck up water from a hose in a water source) will this work over a hill/ridge, or does the syphon hose have to be on level ground? Also, if I do attach such a syphon entry into the res, does it go closer to the top of the res, whereas the gravity-pulled outflow go near the bottom? Another though would just be to have rain-filled reservoirs, but is there a way that I can conceal these in the ground, or at least mostly in the ground so if anyone does happen to walk through, it won't be detected? My main goal is not to make trips up to such a location, but still ensure thorough watering.

Second, closer to my home, I grew in a bog/swamp type location which is between 1-3 feet deep year-round. Last season I grew on a fallen tree (which lies over the water) with 5 gallon buckets, but this didn't help me in the watering department, I still had to manually water these plants. I understand that I could use a wick type system, although I don't know if a wick will draw water up 3-4 feet, which happens to be how much space is between the water and the fallen tree. Recently I've been debating a design that would function like a raft, canoe, or some other floating device that I could place containers to house soil, plants etc., with a wick system actively drawing water from the underlying bog as needed. Considering that this raft would be floating on the water, I wouldn't have to worry about the 3-4 foot gap between soil and water. Any ideas/comments on such a design? It's all completely hypothetical, but it would save me time, or completely eliminate the need for me to water these plats, thus keeping my detection level near 0.

Many thanks, not only for your response, but also for your previous postings on guerilla irrigation.

Here is drawing I did to show the right and wrong ways to do a siphon. The blue dots are a water source, the red your rez or plot if the siphon is for watering, green lines are hose or pipe.

In figure 1 and 2, the source is at the same level or lower than the rez, this will not produce reliable siphon, since siphons use the suction created by the water flowing by gravity down the pipe to suck the water over hills and rises, the exit of the pipe must be lower than the source. The lower the exit is below the source, the stronger and more reliable the siphon will be.

Figure 3 and 4 show a correct set up for a siphon, with the exit lower than the source.

For starting a siphon over a high spot, you may need to prefill the hose to start a siphon. Depending on the length of the run, you may need to use 2-3 valves to do this, with one at the exit, and one at the source. Now fill each hose at the peak with water hauled there, connect the hoses, then turn the valve at the source on and stick it in the water, when you turn the hose on at the rez a siphon will be created as the water is sucked down the hill.

I'd advise not using a siphon to feed the system, unless you must build a rez like I did onsite, siphons can be hard to work with, especially in systems without a sharp drop to ensure the siphon doesn't break. I only used a siphon there because that type of rez cannot have a valve installed near the bottom, and because I did have a 20' drop to the plot.

Instead I'd advise using a waterbed matress, plastic barrels, garbage cans, or rough totes, with valves attached for feeding the system. Much more reliable. The Rez I built is more a option for Guerrillas hiking long distances, so that you can get maximum capacity for the weight of materials.

For rainfilled reservours to work you have to set up a rain harvester, a tarp for example that catches rain over a small area and directs it into the rez. The problem with these is that the rain harvester can increase the visablity of the rez while it is set up, also they tend to catch all kinds of stuff with the rain, like leaves or tree needles, bugs, and I even caught some rats in some I had out years ago. You would need to clean the crap out of the water to use it in most systems without plug ups.

A few years back I envisioned a floating self-watering planter rig for swamp growing, but since I have few swamps in my region I had no need for it. Basicly its a planter that floats on a innertube(perhaps resting on netting spread over the tube).
The planter container sits just above the water level and holes are drilled in the bottom for drainage, a 3-4" pipe is connected through a hole cut in the bottom of the container, and runs down into the water, this is filled with potting soil along with the planter container. This pipe sticking into the water provides a route for water to be wicked into the planter, automaticly watering the plant.
A rope can be connected to the tube to tether to a tree or whathaveyou, with enough slack left to allow the tube to rise and drop with changing water levels.

This floating planter is all I'd use if I lived in swamp/marsh lands, imagine the simplicity!

I'm interested in the self-watering planters and was wondering how often you'd have to fill the res in a climate around 87 degrees F. during summer.

I noticed your drawing had the planter smaller than the res. Isn't the earthbox's planter and res the same size? I would like to grow big trees in these. (2 pounds per plant yield)

Would like to go at least 7 days without having to water. Any idea on how big I should make my planter/res?

Excellent informative thread. THanks a lot

Check out Cascadias thread on Earthboxes, lots of info there, I don't have experience with them, Yet. My drawings were me trying to understand, and may not have been optimum.

2 pounds is a large order, I imagine you'd need to make your box from 50 gallon totes, using 40 gallons of the space for soil, and the rest for water. Perhaps a external rez could help extend the time between visits.

I'd advise you to aim for 4- 1/2 pounders, not much advantage to growing it all on one plant.

thanks a lot backcountry

I was reading a garden magazines. I found this thing...


It look big enough to fit two or three barrels of water.

There are many other things you can hide under it. Plus, those thing come in any sizes.


Just throwing another idea out.

Almost all my sites this year I am doing guerilla/neglect style. Just prepped holes, polymers and hoping for the best. This thread has made me decide to go with a few auto irrigated trees as insurance.

Gotta a couple of questions though:

At the plant end of the hose is the water just dumping onto the surface? or is it buried and dumping to the roots? I was thinking I'd bury it and let it dump right onto the root level but I'm worried about clogs... Maybe fill a small hole next to the plant with some gravel and dump on to that?

And what about temps in the reservoir? Does it need to be buried to avoid getting to hot? Id like to just stick it inside a bush if possible.

wow awesome thread BC given me many ideas for this year, THANKS alot bro.

John, i havent tried auto irrigation before but either way i think (be it that the water is flowing onto of the soil or, into gravel as you said) would work. the gravel idea is a good one if you didnt want any lost water. hope i helped.

peace keke

john cutter- In the past I would have just let it dump on the surface, now I would let it dump into a small bucket or Coffee can buried next to the plant and poked full of holes, this lets the water get directly to the roots that do the most drinking.

thanks BC, got another question for ya:

since Im only doing one plant per 50 gallon tub I wont need to refill it during the season so my only concern is the batteries on the timer. have you had to replace them during the season?

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.