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market-farming - Re: drip tape pick-up and storage

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  • From: Chris Sawyer <css AT ioa.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: drip tape pick-up and storage
  • Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 07:06:09 -0500


We lay our tape on the edge of the field during the winter and drag it back
in the spring. It lasts two years, the first year not much leaking, we use
repair couplings the second year and recover them before disposing of the
tape. Here it is illegal to burn plastic. One farmer close to me burns huge
piles of it and it makes a really big black cloud. In fact last year the
neighbors thought my house was on fire and the fire trucks showed up here,
when the actual fire was a mile away. I hope he was busted with a huge
fine. We have no choice but to send it to the land fill. This is not my
idea of a sustainable disposal, but I have to make a living and no other
watering or irrigation is practical, particularly in light of the fact we a
growing on plastic mulch. I used overhead for two years and will NEVER go
back to it. Drip is the only way for me. Netafilm is the brand I use and I
have had no problem with clogging and have even stopped using my filters.
We pump from a stream, silty at times. This allows me to pump for hours
without backwashing. I open the ends of the tape every month and flush the
lines....easy, painless, and quick. Fold the tape three times and slip a
short section of tape over the folded line to hold it shut. I use about
45,000 ln ft a season. (five rolls) on our five acres. I think irrigation a
waste of time and the less energy I spend with watering the more I can
spend marketing. I do need overhead only for lettuce to keep it cool in the
hot sun. Overhead from 1 to 2 pm when the temps are over 90. A mist would
be ideal but I don't have that set up yet. Our lettuce beds are semi
permanent constructed of greenhouse ground covers with a hole every 12
inches in all directions. I burn the holes with my flame weeder, it makes a
perfect 2 inch hole every time. (tricky to get the flame just right so it
is not too hot and wont go out when you brand the plastic)

Chris
www.jakesfarm.com





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