Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Pumping water from a stream or pond

market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Market Farming

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Shawnee Flowerfarmer <farmingflowers AT hotmail.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Pumping water from a stream or pond
  • Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:16:59 -0500

You"ll get lots of advice from the list, I'm sure.  Here's a little of mine:
*Become an expert on your watershed...know where the water has been and where it's going to.  Remember, everybody is downstream from somebody else, so find out who's upstream from you and how they use the resource. If you use a stream, research everything about the geology of your area...past and present.  Where I live, there is a a plume of volatile organic chemicals (VOC) slowly moving through the groundwater which many people have forgotten about...if they ever knew it.  Your State website and local soil and water conservation office should be your best friend.

*Filtering the water prior to using it on the crops can be a nightmare.  I did have a system to back flush algae/etc growth from the intake.  (This was very high quality surface water, regularly monitored by Wetlands People for their own purposes and somewhat anxious about allowing agricultural irrigation for 11 acres; you should be prepared with answers if a stressed neighbor shows up.)  The response of the crops to biotically "alive" water was wonderful, but the water microbes do tend to colonize/clog up drip tape and fixtures.  (We replaced drip tape every season and cleaned fixtures if the coyotes hadn't chewed them up)  Fertigation supply companies do have some gear for cleaning equipment...check them out.

*This system was plumbed to hydrants, then pressure regulators and then stepped down to various sizes of manifolds according the field size.  The hydrants were tagged with metal labels clearly stating NOT to drink the water...in Spanish and English....because you just never know when staff, interns, volunteers might get thirsty  which they will fail to mention to their lawyers after attempting to claim that your system gave them a parasite.  Coyotes were welcome to drink all they wanted after chewing up a pressure regulator. 

*the entire system was on timers-with rain sensors- to run different stations at night....for several good water conservation reasons but mostly because the Wetlands People were itchy about the entire concept.
Shawnee, zone 5, wishing this fungus favoring humidity would go back down the Mississippi River


From: mmlibsch AT hotmail.com
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:27:27 +0000
Subject: [Market-farming] Pumping water from a stream or pond


I am hoping to lease 1/2 acre of farm land that has a pond and a stream running next to it. I will need to pump water for irrigation of vegetables and cut flowers. I plan to use drip tape primarily, but may also use small microjet sprinklers for new plantings.

I would like to ask for advice about purchasing and powering a pump. I would also like to ask for advice about filtering water to make it safe for irrigating food crops.

Thanks all,

Mike

California/New York


_______________________________________________ Market-farming mailing list Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/market-farming Market Farming List Archives may be found here: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/market-farming/ Unsubscribe from the list here (you will need to login in with your email address and password): http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/market-farming



Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page