If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. Anne Bradstreet

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them. Ether 12:27

Yea, all things which come of the earth, in the season therof, are made for the benefit and the use of man, both to please the eye and to gladden the heart; Yea, for food and for raiment, for taste and for smell, to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. And it pleaseth God that he hath given all these things unto man; for unto this end were they made to be used, with judgment, not to excess, neither by extortion. D&C 59:18-20

Friday, December 6, 2019

Preparing for next year's drip irrigation

The weather has turned cool again, so I didn't do much outside.  I did saw off the excess of the dowels I've used to secure the totes, added a 4th worm tower to a tote, and covered the strawberry tote in black plastic.  Now all of my totes are covered in black plastic and I have 3 more totes to add worm towers to.  

When I covered the strawberry tote, I noticed the other totes have more give than I like.  That is because I only strapped one of the three dowels to the tote.  I'll have to add more strapping when I do the final tote with dowels.  

Now I'm looking at ways to do bucket drip irrigation -- my goal is to eliminate DAILY filling the bucket, as I do not have an outdoor water source.

I found this website that talks about using rain collection barrels utilizing gravity for the drip irrigation, https://www.bluebarrelsystems.com/blog/gravity-feed-irrigate-rain-barrels/.  The following is what it has to offer:

  1. Water will keep seeping downward until it has nowhere else to go. That means as long as your drip line stays below the water level in your tanks, you can irrigate with gravity.
  2. Friction loss, caused by water moving along the inside of a pipe, limits the distance water will travel on a flat site. If your site is completely flat, you can expect about 20 – 25 feet of distribution through a 1/2″ main line.
So, given the size of my patio and the placement of my totes, I should have a separate drip water system for my strawberry tote because it is lower than the others, unless I put it up on a frame.  Otherwise, my system will be flat and within the 20-25 feet of distribution.  If I don't elevate the strawberries, then I will need two systems.  From the video attached to the website, my patio is well within the distribution length they used to setup their system.  

From another website, https://www.practicallyfunctional.com/diy-rain-barrel-stand-multiple-rain-barrels/, I learned that it is better to connect the multiple buckets at the bottom, because then you can use one system that empties all of the buckets at the same time.  So I think what I need to have is 2 towers of 2 buckets each.  The bottom bucket in the first tower has the spigot to the drip irrigation system, and a connector from the bottom bucket of the 2nd tower.  The lid for the bottom bucket of the 1st tower has holes in it, and the bottom of the top bucket likewise has matching holes, so I can fill both buckets from the top bucket.  The 2nd tower has the same setup with the holes in the lid of the bottom bucket and in the bottom of the top bucket.  Using 5 gallon buckets, that will give me 20 gallons of water.  I can start off with 1 tower and see how long that lasts (10 gallons of water), and add the 2nd tower if it doesn't last at least a couple of days.  

I need to be sure to get opaque buckets so the sunlight won't foster algae growth.  And I will put a lid on the top bucket to keep out insects.  
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)