Irrigation in horse-powered systems

[daniel grover]

Hello,

The soil here is very well drained and we’ve had some trouble in the past with germination of direct seeded crops. The farm is also super windy so transplants take a beating. Irrigation would certainly help. In the past, no irrigation has been used at Greyrock. We’re thinking about starting to use some this year–and supplies for drip are what we have on hand. Just curious what other draft-powered vegetable growers are doing and what kinds of systems you’ve devised.

Currently, we’re thinking of putting drip on the direct seeded and transplanted crops until a couple of days past germ or about a week for transplants, depending on conditions. We would then remove the irrigation and begin regular cultivation. Somewhat labor-intensive but may be worth it to increase germ % and transplant health.

Thanks,

Daniel

[daniel grover]

I also know, thanks to Lauren, that David at Natural Roots uses aluminum pipe. 5″ that always stays in the hedge row (more of a grassy river bank at his farm), with a tee that goes to 2″ out to the fields. They water 1/2 a field at a time, with a timer on the gas/diesel pump, for four hours. Water is drawn from the river through a crate at the end of the pipe with a screen around it to filter. 2-3 sets/ day.

Pipe is moved via two people and bikes. Five pipes are stacked on shoulders, riders get on bikes, and ride down the field to the next set. Two trips per set of pipe. 250′ fields.

[Anton Shannon]

Daniel,

Just spent all day getting our irrigation set up for the year in our market garden. I’ll try and get some pictures up in the coming days. We have really well drained gravelly loam. Our irrigation system is like anything, there’s tradeoff’s, but overall I’m fairly pleased with how it is working for us. We use a gas powered irrigation pump with a disc filter and 2″ layflat to pull water from a reliably flowing stream about 500′ below our market garden. The layflat runs up the center of our farm and off of that we run ‘laterals’ of 1 1/2″ blue stripe header line (toro is the brand I think). Coming up from the blue stripe every 30′ or so is a “wobbler” sprinkler with purple nozzels atop a metal stake sticking about ~3′ out of the ground. Water is brought to the wobblers through easy to attach/remove plastic press fittings. The color nozzels and the spacing of them along the lateral determine the amount of water you can put on in the amount of time you want and the width the lateral will water. We have one lateral for each field, and move that from section to section in the field. What is nice is that then there is very little irrigation anywhere else on the farm to get in the way of cultivating mechanically with the horses.

Moving the lateral is the most annoying part. I keep telling myself I’m going to build a roller, maybe this will inspire me to just make it a priority.

We got most of our system components from Nolt’s Produce Supplies in Leyola, PA, or Rainflo in East Earl, PA. The wobbler system is the kind Rainflo sells, not the kind Nolt’s sells.

Like I said I’ll try and get some pictures up.

Hope that helps,
My neighbor always calls it irritation instead of irrigation,

Anton

[Peacework Farm]

Daniel,

I switched to all wobbler heads also this year (from impact head rain birds). Adam Sauders in Penn Yann sells them. Which might be your closest supplier. $7 bucks a piece. 50 cents for different PSI tips

I also ran a trash pump from the pond, through 3 inch fire hose about 400 feet. This fed the aluminum 3 inch ‘hand pipe’ which are 30 feet long with one sprinkler each. (Much like natural roots) With the Lavender tips in the wobbler, and the highest PSI I could achieve, this resulted in full coverage in between sprinklers. And 4 or 5 beds on both sides of the line (depending on how long the line was)

Investing in the aluminum had pipe was a huge cost. $55 per 30 foot 3 inch pipe. $7 per wobbler. But Aluminum has one of the lowest friction reducing capacities. Which results in less PSI loss per foot. Fire hose is also exceptional good for this. They also both have a long working life. I bought my at an auction and thus have more sticks then I will likely use. I would consider to sell some if you guys are interested. I also have extra 3 inch and 1.5 inch fire hose if your interested.

The biggest thing I like about the aluminum lines is that one person can move them easily, and its a task anyone can do. and its quick. So while the drip is cheap initial cost and then expensive in terms of labor cost. The hand pipe is the opposite. Its so freaking easy to move.

PS: my aluminum pipe came with brass rain bird heads, which I dont like to use anymore. Trying to sell them cheap for anyone who could use them. I’ve got probably 50 or so.

-eli

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