Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Irrigation

The 3 Flat Acres irrigation system is up and running.

We are pumping water up a significant hill to the growing fields. Our flattest land is up on our ridgetop - far, far away from our well.


The white PVC runs up the side of the barn and OVER the barn drive access and then hits the fence line continuing up


We need to replace the barn roof first - until then, we'll be filling from the well.

We are collecting the water in the water retention tanks (~1500 gallons each - only one shown in the photo above), pumping it via PVC up the side of the hill to a PVC distribution array along our mid farm fence line with take-off valves along the PVC. The take-offs are large, flexible irrigation lines (similar to fire hoses) which are then linked to the drip tape in the fields. We anticipate that we can irrigate 3 fields from the barn set up.


This pump is fed from the tanks and sends the water up the irrigation lines
(yes, the stand is black locust)

Blue flexible lines feed the drip lines in the beds


We plan to repeat the entire process on the shop roof to irrigate our summer growing fields. These fields aren't in production yet.

This was a major undertaking. The current (almost) drought that we are experiencing demanded that we fast-track this project. Our garlic was thirsty.

1 comment:

Wishful Acres Farm said...

Angie!
I'd like to know more about your connectors... are you using a quick-connect system that you can connect a drip tape line to quickly, then disconnect quickly, etc?
I've been thinking about our irrigation. Now it's hoses, run off hydrants this way & that. Our dog chewed through 3 150-ft hoses this May (grrrr). Our riding mowers have found others.
Wondering if we run PVC... will the mowers harm the PVC if nicked by a mower blade?