irrigating my 1/2 acre garden using lake water

[karnum]

Hi,
I am new to this forum and this is my first post. Glad to know this forum exists!

We have not had any rain to speak of this summer and I am tired of hauling buckets of water from the lake to water my 1/2 acre garden. I started doing my research and came across this forum. I am looking to purchase a fuel based trash pump (no access to electric power) that can handle some solids because the lake shore has weeds. The lake shore is quite shallow and full of lake weeds so I may need to go about 100 feet in. This will put me about 15 feet below ground level. I am thinking of building a deck to get the lift and install the pump. I dont have any idea what the HP of the pump should be to get enough suction and the discharge needs to travel atleast 200 feet to access the entire garden. Any suggestions, thoughts appreciated. Thanks and lets hope for some rain.

 

[muddstopper]

Most of your trash pumps will lift water from the pond about 20ft and push the water about 80ft vertical. Horizontal distance for just 200ft isnt going to be a issue. If you where trying to pump a half a mile than you might have a problem due to friction loss. I regularly would pump thru 400ft of hose to fill a water truck from creeks and streams. As for sucking trash, most of the smaller pumps (2in) will allow 3/4inch solids to pass, the little bitty pumps maybe not quite as large. I suggest that you put a strainer on your suction hose, just because the pump might pass the solids, no use wearing the pump out when a strainer cost so little. A new pump will most likely come with a suction hose and strainer if you get it a Tractor Supply or Northerntool. If your shallow lake has enough water to completely cover the suction strainer, then that is as deep as you need to go, provided you aint going to pump the lake dry.

 

[Qapla]

You definitely need the strainer/screen on the intake line. Even if the pump can pass the solids, unless you are planning to just flood the rows from a hose the irrigation nozzles will not pass the solids.

If you can locate the pump close enough to the lake a PTO pump like those used for spraying may work.

 

[karnum]

thanks for your input. This is quite encouraging to me. I was definitely thinking of including the strainer on the intake and it is good to know that I can pull from a shallow lake shore even though its got the murky lake weeds. I dont think I will suck the lake dry you can see it in this picture. View attachment 272905
I thinking of mostly the flooding method for now, if I start getting clear water with no solids I might opt to sprinklers but with no rains in our area the lake weeds are growing like a thick carpet. I am thinking that is good because if I can draw that onto my land it will fertilize as well as act as mulch. anyway, I am considering either a 2" or 3" gas trash pump. I will be setting it up the discharge plumbing in such a way that I can go down from 2 or 3" to 3/4" so I can use garden hose for the watering mostly because it is cheap.
I am finding pumps at 2.5 HP to be cheaper than 6.5 HP besides cost my consideration now is to deal with pressure. I want to have enough pressure to reach the entire garden but I dont to have too much pressure to might bust my pipe. Also to add I am mostly looking up things on ebay where i am finding 2.5 hp gas pumps for $110 and 6.5 jump up to $250+. off course I would prefer to buy it from an authorized dealer and get some type of warranty so thanks for Tractor Supply and northen tools input I will look into them.
Anyway, let me stop rambling and get to the point. I need to decide on HP strength, and also figure the pressure issue. Thanks again.

 

[muddstopper]

I can tell you from experience that the 4.5hp 2inch water pump will pump 600gal in about 6 minutes as that is what I used to use to fill my 600gal hydroseeder. It would fill the tank faster than I could dump the materials in the tank. Actually, I think you will find that the 2inch pump will flood your garden and possibly even wash it out if you use the flood method for irrigation. I cant be positive about that, but you need to give it some thought before you buy one. I would probably go with one of the smaller one inch pumps for irrigation on 1/2 acre. It will be a lot cheaper to connect to your garden hoses and put out more water than you should need. If you want to use sprinkler head you can purchase a small strainer like used on chemical spray rigs pretty cheap at Tractor Supply. If it will keep a mist nozzle clear, it should work just fine for a sprinkler head. Pressure shouldnt be an issue for garden hoses using a trash type pump, maybe 60psi would be the max it will produce. Your household water system probably has that much or more pressure. With all that said, I know a person that is using the 2in trash pump to irrigate his garden from a creek. I think I counted 11 springler heads connected to it using large pipe for the trunk line reduced down to whatever size pipe is needed for each head. The pipe is on top of post along the edge of the garden. He is irrigateing about 1/2 acre, same as you.

 

[Rock knocker]

In many states surface water is the property of the state, and individuals may not use these waters without an irrigation permit

 

[karnum]

I looked into the law. Wisconsin DNR allows the use of waterways for irrigation as long as it is non-commercial use.
Mudstopper- Thank you for your input.. very helpful. I am thinking of going with 2.5 HP, 2" pump for $150. Here is a link on ebay:
PORTABLE 2.5 HP 2" GAS POWERED WATER PUMP SELF PRIMING | eBay
This one has a 13' lift and might be similar to the one you described being used for 1/2 acre lot. I am planning doing the trunk line and reduce it down to garden hoses coming off it at regular intervals. I would like to do a sprinkler setup but the water near lake shore look black. its laden with algae so I am still not sure if the strainer will work. so I am thinking of putting the strainer that comes with motor into a covered bucket so it doesnt suck in all the weeds. Hey, thanks for explaining how the pressure works that is good to know.

 

[wotalota]

I pumped water from the lake for a vegetable garden with the input to the pump up on blocks to get it out of the mud.
If it is for a vegetable garden, would recommend using soker hoses to distribute the water. Avoid spraying it on the folage to have success with tomatoe plants and keep things clean.

 

[20 20]

Have used a little 1.5 inch hose pump 99cc(I believe) from HF it could easily move water from 12 feet down up to the pump then over 200' away on a flat area. I agree with those that said get it off the bottom and add some type of screen. No matter what the pump can handle if the hose gets plugged you'll be done.

 

[charlz]

I water my lawn and my garden off my pond and sometimes out of a ditch. For most things a 1hp electric pump is used with a regular sprinkler system or sometimes flood. For others I flood using a Honda clear water pump rated at 220gpm with a 2" intake and 1.5" discharge hose. I use two kinds of discharge hose. One is with fittings on it you can buy most anywhere and is reinforced. The other is not reinforced and can't take much pressure. Does not have fitting, you can buy it by the foot at Home Depot, farm and garden places etc. This second type works well for flooding as it doesn't kink as easy so you can move it around. You will not be able to run the pump wide open as a small hose like that will whip and the force of the water will erode your soil away. I recently got a piece of 3" blue discharge hose and that works pretty well with the pump as I can run it wide open and the water pressure is fairly low at the discharge end.

I would look to a larger pump but plan on running it slow. This will help with not eroding your soil away and on the suction end keeping the flow down through the strainer will help keep the weeds from sticking to it. The larger the strainer the better. If I get a chance I might post some pics of what I use later.