drought one day flood the next

[muddstopper]

I know lots of folks are getting flooded, but here we are having the opposite. After a winter and spring of raining everyday, it has turned dry and hot. My garden is trying to dry up. I have 2 330gal totes I have been hualing water from the creek to try and irrigate the garden sort of a flood irrigation. My problem is I dont know what I am doing. So far I have put 1000gal of water in the garden by just letting the water run thru a hose down each row. The water so far hasnt reached the ends of a 70ft long row. It is down hill all the way and if I open the hose valve, the water will rush down the rows and run out the other end..

Where the hose is currently laying I have dumped two totes, 660gal of water, and the lower end of the garden is dusty dry. Since there is a fench around the garden where the hose is currently laying is as far as it will reach. The far right rows where it is wet, I opened the valves enough for the water to reach the row ends, and dumped another 330gal of water. This proved to not be enough to soak the rows, even tho water didnt run out the other end of row.

Now I know I could buy and hook up soaker hoses or try to adapt a couple of impact sprinkers to my trash pump, or buy more of the bigger hoses and run it father down the rows to soak the lower ends. All these things add up in cost versus just dumping water. I know big farms uses irrigation ditches to water much bigger fields than I am trying to irrigate. I just havent figured out how they can water the whole field without wasteing water. I am doing something wrong I just havent figured out what it is yet.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Mudd actually your problem is an easy peasy fix. Welcome to my world as we have too much rain then too much dry. You could spend 20 to $100 to make it just right. First of all you need drip line which is very cheap. It is about 1/4'' OD comes in 50 100 250' rolls. You will need a small plastic type of tubing about 1/4 to 3/8'' ID which you will use to supply water to the drip lines. This you will not need much of maybe 40' You will also need some drip line with out any holes to use to transfer water to your drip lines it looks like drip line, but it is straight tubing. You will need to fill your totes and set them about 20' above your garden. You will siphon the water out of the totes into your garden via the upper tubing then into the drip line. The hoses must be able to siphon the water out of the totes into the drip line. If the hoses are too large the system will not work well. You can buy drip line valves which are about $.70 each or buy them online for about $.40 each if you buy about 50. Your tubing that goes into the totes must have a filter. Some types of nylon stocking work well or very fine plastic mesh or? A piece of plastic tubing with some holes in it with the mesh or stocking wrapped around it works fine. The drip line will as a rule cover about 30' so each row or pair of rows will maybe need two to cover the ground. So every other row will have two drip lines going to the feed line from your tote. Your ground looks horrible what do you do with your wood chips? Wood chips feed the soil and hold moisture twice as long. I would run the drip line about six hours at a time longer if need be. One watering event should happen every three to four days. If you are going to be gone and nobody will be able to turn valves on and off then set a timer which will need to be below the the totes so the prime is not lost and yes there will be some leakage, but a very small amount. Problem solved. Thanks

 

[Jmac12]

How far away is the creek? You could get a cheap gas powered pump from HF or similar and just run a standard sprinkler head. When watering from above though you only want to water in the evening or early morning giving the plants foliage time to dry off before sun hits them, and not letting them sit wet over night, although if relative humidity at night is real low this isn't always an issue.

 

[muddstopper]

A couple of repys. The soil might look terrible, but you didnt see it before I turned it into a garden spot. The dirt came off hyway construction from a 100ft deep cut in the side of a mountain. The garden and all the flat ground around it is actually setting on top of about 60ft of fill. I have been trying to build it up for several years now. I have taken a triaxle dump bed of large rocks out of it. I Have used horse manures, and wood mulch by the trailer load. I get all the wood chips I can stand every couple of years when the electric company clears their right of ways. Last time I got chips, I probably took close to 200 truck loads. I pile the chips and turn with tractor every so often. When the chips break down to almost dirt, I dump large amounts into the garden and till into the soil. The ground actually produces pretty well now. Those three rows of corn you see now gave me 36doz ears of sweet corn last year. I got 6 bushels of whitehalf runner beans off a 20ft row. I had okra grow so tall I finally gave up gathering and had to cut the stalks down with a chainsaw. Stalks as big as my arm. Taters as big as footballs. soil might not look like much, but I have added enough carbon to it that it will grow veggies. The soil is still a work in progress, but its a lot closer now than it was when I started.

I have considered drip lines and I already have a trashpump I can use for impact sprinklers and I have two of those on pivots. What I cant seem to find, and I just got back from Lowes plumbing section, is a way to connect to my pump. Pump is a 2 inch and has the camlock couplings. My totes have the male camlock as well as being threaded to accept a 2in pipe nipple. I want to make a tee with 4 hose bibs I can connect to either the totes for gravity feed to soaker hoses, or attach to the pump for using the impact sprinklers. Going from the two inch pipe threads to a tee that I can attach to the tote or pump is whats screwing me up. I want a 2in union I can screw on the pump or tank so I can turn the tee to tighten. A solid type adapter of any lenght will be extremly hard to screw on the fittings.

Gravity feeding the water out of the totes loaded on the back of the trailer isnt going to allow for any head pressure. Water weights about .43lbs perft of head. I can get about 2 foot of head or about 1 lb of pressure. If I run hose from the highest spot on my property, I might gain another couple of feet of head. Its either try to figure out the flood method, or rig up the pump. I am heading to Tractor supply in a few minutes. I know they sell a limited number of camlock fitting. I am hoping they have something on the shelf I can make work to connect my water hoses to my trash pump. Pumping from the creek isnt a solution. Creek is about 90ft below the grade of my garden. Even a very good trash pump would have a hard time overcoming that amount of head. With totes loaded on trailer, I can drive down and have both totes full and ready to use in about 30min.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Mudd do as you see the best for you. If you have totes on the trailer perfect in that is all you need for pressure. The system is set up in spring and not touch it until frost. The system is very very efficient. Yes your soil looks horrible and I am sure that it is better than you started. You should look at the garden and see one to two inches of chips laying on top keeps moisture in and feeds the garden. If you ask me about it as California has worst than horrible soil. When I am done splitting I end up with a couple of pick up loads of chips. So I spread them around places that I want to protect. I am sure you can grow things that I only dream about because at 6,000 feet summers are short and frost comes early along with sandy DG for soil. Thanks

 

[Jmac12]

The last cheap HF pump I had ran water about 85 ft up in elevation no problem.. pump was located about 20' above water source. Total length was about 200'.

Not saying that's the answer for your situation though.. just talking.

 

[muddstopper]

Made a trip to TSC this evening and they had exactly one of the camlock couplings. It just happened to be the one I needed. A trip back to Lowes to buy some 2inch tees and elbows and a little glue and I got the pump rigged up. Only one of my tripod mounted impact spinklers had the hose coupling on the bottom so I hooked it up and gave it a try. It will effectively cover half the garden spot so I figured I get the other sprinklers running and I can water my garden with very little effort. I have my tater plot I want to water next, its a little longer and will take three heads to cover it all at the same time. I put 4 spicketts on my pump so I should be able to run 4 at a time if I need to. I'll take a pic sometime tomorrow if I get the other sprinkler working.

A++ on the harbor freight pump. Onsale now for $169. My current pump is a multiquip 2in mud pump. It doesnt put out the volume or pressure of one of the semi trash pumps. My old 2in honda pump would fill my 600gal hydroseeder in 6 minutes. The multiquip pump takes 30 minutes to fill the two 330 gal totes. My honda pump has a locked down motor, it seems I left the spark plug out the last time I worked on it, which was about 10 years ago. I have it soaking in pb blaster, but I have little hope. Pump is still good, but a new motor cost as much as one of the HF predator complete engine/pump. The honda engine has a threaded shaft, no keyway and is a odd 18mm dia. Its going to be as cheap to just buy a new pump as it is to replace the engine on the old one.

 

[sb47]

You could run 2 pumps and put one half way as a booster pump to get the head you need. It takes a lot more water then you think to soak the ground when you just dump water down the rows.

 

[grizz55chev]

Made a trip to TSC this evening and they had exactly one of the camlock couplings. It just happened to be the one I needed. A trip back to Lowes to buy some 2inch tees and elbows and a little glue and I got the pump rigged up. Only one of my tripod mounted impact spinklers had the hose coupling on the bottom so I hooked it up and gave it a try. It will effectively cover half the garden spot so I figured I get the other sprinklers running and I can water my garden with very little effort. I have my tater plot I want to water next, its a little longer and will take three heads to cover it all at the same time. I put 4 spicketts on my pump so I should be able to run 4 at a time if I need to. I'll take a pic sometime tomorrow if I get the other sprinkler working.

A++ on the harbor freight pump. Onsale now for $169. My current pump is a multiquip 2in mud pump. It doesnt put out the volume or pressure of one of the semi trash pumps. My old 2in honda pump would fill my 600gal hydroseeder in 6 minutes. The multiquip pump takes 30 minutes to fill the two 330 gal totes. My honda pump has a locked down motor, it seems I left the spark plug out the last time I worked on it, which was about 10 years ago. I have it soaking in pb blaster, but I have little hope. Pump is still good, but a new motor cost as much as one of the HF predator complete engine/pump. The honda engine has a threaded shaft, no keyway and is a odd 18mm dia. Its going to be as cheap to just buy a new pump as it is to replace the engine on the old one.

That Honda motor might surprise you, I fixed one for a guy that was submerged in the river for a month, they’re dead simple to work on and tough as nails.

 

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

One extreme always follows another. We were dry here where I live, but did get a couple of rains that they didn't get just a few miles away. Our garden is looking fairly good now, but that's subject to change. I plowed the corn here for the last time, as it will be too tall to plow next week. That's always a good thing.

 

[sb47]

Here it's a ten year cycle of the el nino and la nino effect.

 

[muddstopper]

That Honda motor might surprise you, I fixed one for a guy that was submerged in the river for a month, they’re dead simple to work on and tough as nails.

I plan on letting it soak in the pb blaster for a while before trying to get it broke loose. I have gotten stuck small engines to run again after being locked down. If You can ever get the piston to move even a little bit, you can work it back and forth until it spins. If you can get it to spin, it will usually crank. Might smoke like a tar kiln for a while, but its better than buying a new engine.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Mudd you have a water source where most people do not. Another solution that will not save you tons of time is a roller pump because you will have start it fuel and shut it off. However it will maintain pressure at larger head distances. I used them in the USFS. A 5 roller can be driven by a 5 to 7 HP motor which will create 200 PSI, but it will provide pressure at a great distance it could only yield 15 GPM. Thanks

 

[muddstopper]

Good information, but a little overkill for what I am trying to do. My garden is only about 2000sqft. My tater patch might be 3000sqft. I would have to grow a lot of veggies to pay for a roller pump and all the hose it would take to get down to the creek. I managed to find a coupling to hook up my second impact sprinkler. I'll go get another load of water today and spray it on the tater patch. Weather man calling for rain Wednesday. My weather stone says hes full of crap. Anyways, even if it does rain this week, I know historically, its going to get dry in July and August. I'll use the totes and pump to keep the garden watered and probably put a load or two on my lawn, just because I have the means to do so.

I give a lot of my garden veggies to my neighbors, like me, most everybody around me is older and retired. Some dont have the room to plant their own gardens and some are not physically able to. My wife fills the freezer and then gives it to the kids thruout the winter. I kill a hog or two every fall and give meat to My mom and sister and of course my kids. I am not trying to raise veggies to sell, I do it because I like doing it. I can buy a lot of veggies for what I have spent buying hoses and totes and pumps and fuel. Somehow bought veggies dont taste as good as what I grow myself.

 

[sb47]

You could use a simple water well pump and cheap PVC pipe to pump your water to where you need it. My water well is 300 feet deep and pumps water from that depth then the storage tank pushes it the rest of the 500 feet to 3 different houses. Just set it up the same way you would any water well system.

 

[Jmac12]

You could use a simple water well pump and cheap PVC pipe to pump your water to where you need it. My water well is 300 feet deep and pumps water from that depth then the storage tank pushes it the rest of the 500 feet to 3 different houses. Just set it up the same way you would any water well system.

Well pumps generally take 240v power supply. They need a lot of pow chow to get turning..

 

[muddstopper]

Got the water flowing.

Put 660 gal on my taterpatch yesterday. Wasnt enough but all I had time for. Weather man says rain tomorrow. Sprayed for taterbugs today. Dang them things appear overnite. I didnt see more than one or two yesterday, but today they where showing up in custers. A little spinosad and neem this morning and I bet they are dead already.

 

[muddstopper]

Bought the harborfreight 2in pump today. By the time I got home it was raining. Good slow rain, what my garden needed. Supposed to rain some more the next few days. If I had known the HF pump came with a steady supply of rain I would have bought one years ago

 

[Jmac12]

Haha, I'm happy to see some rain also.. was starting to get pretty dry.

 

[muddstopper]

Haha, I'm happy to see some rain also.. was starting to get pretty dry.

Your Welcome! That must be one special water pump I bought. I am afraid to take it out of the box, It might start a flood around here. This rain is coming at a good time. My taters are making, I snuk a peek in one of the hills and I have gravelers. Big taters take lots of water so I am hopeing for a big crop. My depeleted rain barrel is running over already.