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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] drip tape (was Vole Salad Bar)

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  • From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] drip tape (was Vole Salad Bar)
  • Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 15:00:48 -0500

Old drip tape is great for stapling plastic to the end walls. We are also trying it this year in place of rope to hold the sidewalls in (those vertical pieces of rope you tie on every so often on the outside, to keep the sides from billowing out).
 
Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY
Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com 
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Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured chicken, duck, and geese
 
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From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Road's End Farm
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 1:13 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] drip tape (was Vole Salad Bar)


On Mar 1, 2010, at 12:48 PM, <clearviewfarm AT bluefrog.com> wrote:

I suppose I ought to start a new thread, since this is a take off from the Vole Salad Bar.  Lucy, you mentioned using drip tape.  Do you or anyone else have other uses for spent drip tape?  Since it was so wet last summer, I never even used the 4000+' of drip tape under my plastic mulch.  It seems like such a waste to just throw it away.  For that matter, it seems like such a waste to throw it away anytime.  How would one efficiently roll the tape up and use it again, if it is in good shape?

Thanks,
Kurt Forman
Clearview Farm
Palmyra, NY 14522


I don't know how "efficiently" we do it, but we do re-use drip tape; sometimes we roll it back up by hand into a bundle, sometimes we roll it back up onto an empty drip tape roll hub, sometimes we just pick it up and move it over still at full length (easiest with one person on each end, and if you don't have to go too far; it can be moved to field edge or between beds while you till, and then moved back in to where you want it in that field/bed or the next. -- note few of our runs are longer than 200'.)

If you search, you can probably find plans for various home-made drip tape roller mechanisms; the only one I have to hand is a rather idiosyncratic technique involving an old hub and a garden cart that we came up with a couple of years ago, but don't always use. If you can find old hose reels, they might be useful.

If you buy the lightest weight tape, it won't stand up to this as well as if you buy heavier; but I've found 10 mil tape will generally be reusable for two to three years if we don't hit it with the rototiller, or hit it too often with the weeding tools. I do recommend being prepared to spend more time than when laying new -- some of the lines may have sprung leaks -- and laying in a good supply of splices -- but, when the tape has finally had it, it's possible to recover the splices for further use before tossing the worn out tape.

It occurs to me: we're still laying new tape every year under plastic; much of our production isn't in plastic, and we use the old drip tape for the rows not in plastic. To be able to re-lay it under plastic, you'd need to have it rolled up neatly enough to work with the equipment, and it's both harder to find leaks and a bigger nuisance to cut and splice tape when it's under the plastic than when it's just laid on the surface.


-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale






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