From maroc@islandnet.com Mon Jan 17 13:16:05 2000 Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 21:48:17 +0000 From: Maroc To: sanet-mg@ces.ncsu.edu Subject: drop irrigation Bart, After 15 years experience with low pressure drip irrigation system I'd say it's a good way to go. It may have been me who suggested it on this list in the first place. We're using flat plastic pipe/hose with holes every four inches. We have two 45-gal metal drums (the inside is coated) (they are the same as your 55 gal drums, just a different measuring system) on a 12-foot tower. I believe 5 psi is adequate to operate the system. The area irrigated has a slope away from the tanks which seems to help with even distrbution. The reason we did this in the first place was to make things easier on the well. If one uses a pressure regulator, which works just as well, you would have your well cycling on and off constantly and that is the best way to wear out pump motors, actually it's not the motor that wears out but the starting circuit, too many times switching on and off. Some of the flat plastic hose is over ten years old. When putting it down in the spring I just blow it out with a bit of pressure and if holes plug up during the season I open them with a small ladies hat pin which I keep threaded in one side of my braces. Straw mulch over the drip hoses keeps the UV off, keeps down some weeds and retains an even spread of moisture. We feel it's much better than overhead watering. You will need to set up zones for watering because the system has a limited volume for efficient operation. I don't know any rules for that, you'll have to experiment in your own location. Bonne chance. Don Maroc Vancouver Island, Canada PS. don't be red faced Bart, we in Canada have been legally metric for years (we changed just when the gasoline prices jumped a few hundred percent, so we were suddenly paying the same for a liter as we had for an imperial gallon) but I have no idea what the metric equivalent of a 45-gal drum is. People here still talk about miles per gallon when we have neither miles nor gallons. To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg". If you receive the digest format, use the command "unsubscribe sanet-mg-digest". To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command "subscribe sanet-mg-digest". All messages to sanet-mg are archived at: http://www.sare.org/san/htdocs/hypermail