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Old October 25, 2011   #57
moon1234
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 54
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Don't believe the global warming hype. One volcano erupting is the equivalent of 100 years of mans attempt to do anything.

As for drip, I would suggest dealing with Irrigation Mart in LA (The state). They are cheaper than almost everyone else and will help you properly design a system.

I inject 80% of my fertilizer. I grow melons in WI and I get by with less than half of the conventional recommendations. I use a cheaper injector called an EZ-FLO injector. It is nowhere near as accurate as a dosatron, but the plus side is I just dump in a whole bag of dry, pilled fertilizer and it continuously adds water. This works because only so much fertilizer will dissolve in water. Once that saturation point is reached you max the max concentration. As water flows into and out of the tank this mix is kept at a fairly consistent rate until the tank is near empty.

Why don't I care about being real accurate? I inject a weeks worth of fertilizer in one irrigation cycle. This means that it is more concentrated over the whole field at the beginning and less concentrated at the end. As long as you push out the whole amount in one irrigation cycle, you won't have inconsistent fertilization.

EZ-Flo's are really cheap as well. $80 for a 3 gallon. $250 bucks for one that holds a 25lb bag, etc. You don't need to premix in a 50 gallon drum, etc. I like just taking the cap off, dumping in the whole bag, putting the cap back on and i'm done until next week. Been working a treat for me for the last few years.

Keep in mind that if you need to irrigate a larger area, you can go with lower flow tape, you just need to run your cycles for a longer amount of time. We do a full acre of melons at a time on a 1" LDPE header line. We are putting in a 2" line this coming year.

You mentioned a mulch layer. I have the rain-flo 345, which is a flat bed layer. Got it on craigslist for $500. It lays the drip tape and mulch in one shot. It is a HUGE time saver. Keep in mind you need to REMOVE the mulch and tape at season's end. I used BioTelo this year. It is Biodegradable mulch. I just pull up the drip tape and wind it on a spool. The mulch is disced in and then the field plowed. You won't be able to find any trace of the mulch by next spring. Costs about three times what normal plastic mulch does, but well worth it.

You should ALWAYS have a pressure regulator and at least 150 mesh (200 is better) screen filter installed. They will NOT slow down water flow or pressure if properly installed. Sand can clog the emitters on the drip tape and you won't know it is a problem until it is too late.

Here are some youtube videos that will be visual aids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER5EnuUYe-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=h2vUKbmZQHU

Here is how MOST people transplant through plastic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWXrDLe6z8k

Grab Toro's Ag Drip Irrigation owners manual:
http://www.toro.com/en-us/Agricultur...rs-manual.aspx

That should tell you 90% of what you need to know.

And finally, here is irrigation mart:
http://www.irrigation-mart.com/html/products.html

Ask for Robin. He is the agronomist there and knows more than you will ever need to know about drip and designing a system.

IF you do drip correctly with fertilization, you can MORE than double your yield. This year I pulled 2000lbs of cherry tomatoes off of 90 plants. Yes you read that correctly. No one believed me until I showed them.

I also sold around $4000 dollars of melons off a little over 1/3 of an acre. Yes you read that correctly.

Just remember that header lines and sub mains should be sized properly. The longer the distance to the well the larger the diameter of the pipe or you will have friction loss and it can add up quickly in small diameter hoses.

Pressure regulators should be right near the sub-mains (the lines your drip tape hooks up to). 12 PSI is what I use for my regulators.

The ends of your sub mains should also have auto-flush caps on them as well. These are special caps that have a valve in them that opens when the water pressure drops to about 2psi. This allows the water to flush out the ends, along with any sediment. It also allows air in so that any water that is at a lower elevation and is draining does not cause sand or dirt to get sucked into drip tape higher up in elevation.

ALWAYS put in a vacuum breaker on your supply line if you are injecting fertilizer. If you don't have proper venting on your drip system it is possible to suck fertilizer back into your house if the pressure in your house drops while you are irrigating or if there is vacuum in the drip system. These costs a few bucks and are well worth the investment.
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