[Homestead] Rainwater collection revisited

EarthNSky erthnsky at bellsouth.net
Sun Nov 2 01:13:07 EST 2008


In making plans to try to grow rice, I have been been looking at my 
water catchment practices.  I currently have 2 tanks that store a total 
of 600+ gallons.  I have capacity for additional tanks, 2 or maybe three 
of them- I just need to locate some tanks and gutters.

If I get a 27 ft pool(I put a wanted ad on Freecycle this evening), and 
if I fill that area 4" deep to grow rice, that is about 1500 gallons of 
water.  A foot of water is just under 5000 gallons of water.
My well doesn't have that capacity-or it might, but I won't try it.  For 
me to be able to flood a rice paddy, I need rainwater, and I need to 
collect more than I currently do.  5 tanks of 300 gallons would be 1500, 
so I need 3 more tanks.  They say that ideally you can collect 0.62 
gallons per square foot of collection surface per inch of rainfall can 
be collected.  If I set up my tanks, I should be able to fill up my 
tanks in a thunderstorm that drops 2" of rain.  Those are fairly common 
here in the Spring and Summer.

So, I need 3 additional water tanks-they are anywhere from $35 to $75 
each, and less than 50 feet of gutter.  I'll ask for gutters on freecycle.

I would appreciate it if someone would check my math on these 
calculations as well as the other rice growing calculations. It's been a 
long day.  I estimated some things, tried to be conservative in those 
estimates.

If anyone has any comments, ideas or rice growing information, Sage and 
I would appreciate it.  I am posting what I learn here.

Bev
-- 
“Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to 
hate. Hate leads to suffering.”        Yoda


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