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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Drip Tape

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  • From: "Christine & Marlin" <glenecofarm AT planetcomm.net>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Drip Tape
  • Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2006 23:53:49 -0500

I have been fairly successful with the homemade system I use to save used drip tape.  I make what amounts to oversized shuttles that look like the ones weavers use on their looms, only much larger. The sides are made of ¾” x 1 ½” furring strips cut to lengths of about 2 ½’.  About 5” from the ends I drill ½” holes through the wide sides and drill ½” holes in the centers.  Then I cut 7” lengths of ½” dowel.  These dowel pieces are used to connect two of the furring strip pieces together through the holes nearest the ends, forming a shuttle about 5 ½” wide measured from the insides of the furring strips.  Glue the joints securely.  Now cut 7” pieces of ¾” x ¾” (ripping a furring strip will give them to you) and glue, screw, or nail them across both sides of the shuttle at the center holes.  Make sure you don’t have nails or screws passing through the center holes.  This will serve to keep the tape away from the center holes when you wind it on the shuttle later.  Take some more pieces of furring strip and rip it into strips about ¼” wide and cut these strips into pieces about 1’ long.  This completes the shuttle.  Make as many as you think you will need.

 

Then build a folding frame from four 2 x 4s cut to 3’ or 3 ½’ lengths and two 1 x 3s cut to about 3’ lengths.  Nail them together to form two U shaped pieces using the 1 x 3 for the bottom of the U.  Place the 2 x 4s on their narrow edges and nail on the 1 x 3s about 2 inches from the bottom of the 2 x 4s.  Lean the tops of the 2 x 4s in several inches so that the top of the U is narrower than the bottom.  You may want to put some sort of brace where you join the bottoms together to get a stronger joint.  Putting 1 x 3s on both sides of the 2 x 4s would also make a stronger job.  Drill ¾” holes through the sides of the 2 x 4s several inches from the ends at the top of the U.

 

Get a 7/16” fiberglass or steel rod about 4 feet long and thread it through the ends of your two U shaped frames so that they open up or fold shut like a book.  Visualize a book half opened with open side down on a table. The spine of the book corresponds to the rod where you will place the shuttles. Thread a shuttle or two on the rod before you thread it into the second side of the double U frame.  You are now ready to wind up drip tape.  Each shuttle will hold 5 – 6 hundred feet of drip tape.

 

I like to wind the tape on the shuttle back and forth from side to side either flat or overlapping the tape halfway in a manner as to ensure a uniform windup as the roll grows. After you get the first 100 ‘ or so on the roll you can wedge one or several of the ¼” wide 1’ long strips between the shuttle sides and the rolled on tape on both sides.  This will stabilize your roll as it grows larger and keep it straight and orderly.  Each time you get to the end of a run use a six inch piece of duct tape to fasten the end to your next run and keep on rolling.  When you have your roll as big as you want it, use another piece of duct tape to stick the loose end to the roll.  Mark on the side of the shuttle the length and number of pieces of tape.  The rolls will stack nicely in your storage shed.  When you are ready to reuse it next season, set up your apparatus at the ends of your plots with a roll threaded on the spindle.  Then you will find out why I recommended the ¾” pieces on the center sides of the shuttle.  Grasp the end of drip tape and walk up the row watching the shuttle spin end for end on the stand as the tape comes off.  When you see duct tape appear you will know the run is ended.

 

You will need 10 ml or heavier drip tape to work successfully with this system.  Even with this weight of tape you will still get some holes in the tape (usually caused by wireworms).  These are easily fixed with the smaller goofplugs available through your drip irrigation supplier, costing around a nickel apiece.  I am so cheap I even pick them off of old drip tape before I throw it away.

 

Marlin Burkholder

 

 

 


From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of David Tannen
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 5:02 PM
To: Market Farming
Subject: [Market-farming] Drip Tape

 

I am getting ready to order 8 mil, low flow T-Tape on 12" spacing.  I have 20 beds that are 5' X 100' and I will lay 4 to 8 lines of T-Tape per bed.  The tape is laid on top of the bed, rows are marked and then seeded or transplanted.

I usually dispose of the tape at the end of the season.  From an ecological and economical view this seems to be a tremendous waste. 

I am looking for an easy way to roll up the T-Tape at the end of the season so that it is out of the way, but ready to be reused the following spring. What I had in mind is a small spool that would be placed at the barb or fitting off of the main line.  At the end of the season the 100' length of the T-Tape would be rolled up and left over winter.  In the spring one could then easily roll the tape back out. 

Has anybody experimented with this method or another way to roll up the T-Tape so that it can be reused?

Thanks.

David

 




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