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  • From: Richard Stewart <rstewart AT zoomtown.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] irrigation
  • Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 11:04:27 -0400

The beauty of drip irrigation is the the direct application of water.  You also water less weeds and more crop.

I'd like to add that the guns are great if you are doing large scale applications on plots, like, say alf-alfa fields or sod plots, but waste a great deal of water when attempting to water rows.

There is also a percentage of moisture lost in the air as well.

In the end its another tool in the tool box.

Richard Stewart
Carriage House Farm
North Bend, Ohio

An Ohio Century Farm Est. 1855

(513) 967-1106



On Aug 21, 2009, at 9:51 AM, Bill Shoemaker wrote:

Many of our mixed vegetable growers in northern Illinois use drip for most of their crops, but in their sweet corn and pumpkins they use traveling gun irrigation. These are units that hook into high volume sources, usually wells, and have long hoses on a reel. The hose has a cart with a very large sprinkler at one end, which is reeled out. Once the water is turned on the sprinkler works like any other sprinkler but the radius of the pattern can run from 20' to almost 100'. The reel slowly draws the cart back in, so the sprinkler is constantly encroaching dry ground and leaving wet ground behind.

They usually do a good job, but you need high volume and high pressure. You also need to be aware that the stream of water is heavy and can beat down tender plants. The wind can also be a problem with these units, shifting the spray pattern leading to lack of uniform watering. They come in different sizes and capacities.

Bill




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