Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] irrigation

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Willie McKemie <mf AT austinfarm.org>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] irrigation
  • Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 09:27:27 -0500

On Sun, Aug 23, 2009 at 09:42:49AM -0400, Wyatt Jones wrote:
> I try not to use irrigation as a "rescue technique" but that's the way its
> turned out this year as everything has been breaking and I end up having to
> let it go to get other things done. From now on every fitting that I can
> get in metal is going to be metal. All the plastic I used was UV resistant
> but one after the other has split slowly but surely for some reason. I'm
> done my share of plumbing and never had any problems but this is a large
> outdoor scale than I'm used to.

Are you talking about PVC? I have lightweight PVC that has been
exposed to direct sunlight for many years and never given me any
trouble. I do break it regularly by snagging lines with a tractor.
Because it is so easy to repair, I prefer it to other material.

Someone might benefit from this experience. I have a lot of buried PVC
with 1" risers coming up and feeding hose bibs. I break the risers
occasionally; when I do, I have to shut down a large section of the
irrigation system to make the repair. The last major expansion
involved trenching in about 4000 feet of 2.5" "main" PVC. In the area
where I needed risers, I brought up 2" risers, each to service 7 1"
risers. I put 2" shutoff valves on the surface and then put in a string
of riser servicing pipe in the same trench as the main; one riser at
the shutoff valve and three more in each direction 40' apart. I now
have several sets of those 7 risers, 40' apart. Whenever I break
something in that area, I turn off the local shutoff valve and do the
repair while no more than seven risers have their supply disrupted.

> Is there a good website on those sprayer devices you mentioned Bill? I
> only have 53psi but I have a pretty good pump and fair amount of water
> capacity although its not huge. I wonder if there is some way to cut back
> on the flow of those sprayers so they can keep up the pressure and work
> with less flow, moving slower to get the coverage. I'm only planning to
> use it on sweet corn and pumpkins, mixed with winter squash with soybeans
> planted as a cover crop in between the rows. I'll have to look around I
> guess. I've been thinking about those but everything I saw was rather
> small for any sort of acreage.

http://www.irrigation-mart.com/sprinklers.html

I bought a small Kifco a few years ago. Giving it the pressure it
needed disrupted my other irrigation efforts so I never used it much.
As I recall, I paid about $1600 for it.

--
Willie, ONWARD! Through the fog!
http://counter.li.org Linux registered user #228836 since 1995
Debian3.1/GNU/Linux system uptime 617 days 3 hours 05 minutes




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page