Watering remote areas

[Bob_Trevithick]

Rather than putting in all kinds of hoses and faucets for our gardens, it occured to me that maybe I could find a way to carry a large water tank around behind the tractor and do the watering of remote areas that way.

I could put a big plastic tank in my rear dirt scoop or trailer, or I could even imagine getting a friend to weld some 3ph hardware to a 55-gallon drum.

The problem would be pressure for spraying. I could use the "just let it trickle out the bottom" approach if I didn't mind running over our crops. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Anybody come up with a workable and fairly inexpensive way to do something like this?

Thanks,
Bob

 

[Knight9]

Bob,

How "remote" are these areas?? How frequently would you want to water them? How much water would be required each time?

Kevin

 

[RobS]

Bob, I was faced with watering a couple hundred trees last summer on our property with no water supply. I looked into truck mounted water tanks and tph options all of which were pretty expensive. I ended up buying two 55 drums for $4 each and rigged some simple fittings/valves and hoses to connect it all together. The drums have a bung hole near the bottom so it's all gravity feed. I upped my hose size for better flow after the first trial and it worked just fine.

When we move, I'll likely use the same method, but with only one drum mounted on the tractor with one of those carry-all platforms on the tph. I'll have water close enough that the refills won't be so bad.

Hope this helps /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Scott_in_WVA]

Water is heavy and you would be suprised how much you could end up using and hauling.

 

[WVBill]

Bob:
I use a soaker hose to water my garden rows now. I suppose if you put a female hose fitting into the bottom of your 55-gallon drum you could gravity feed the soaker hose. My water pressure goes from 35 to 65 PSI (pressure tank settings) and the soaker hose works fine.

Anybody know how much pressure is generated by a full 55 gal drum held a foot or so off the ground? Nearly empty?

 

[Darren]

I haven't used it for watering yet but I have a 3 pt aerator that has a place for steel plate weights on top. I've strapped a plastic drum on and filled it with water for weight. It's a lot easier to unload and load an empty plastic drum than do the muscle beach thing.

You shouldn't need much to hang a drum or two on a 3 pt. It looks like you're already thinking about hanging a tank on an implement. The plastic drums have two large bungs so you should be able to adapt the top one to introduce compressed air (imagine the drum laying on its side) to pressurize the water. A small 12V compressor might give you enough pressure to hurry things along and not rupture the drum.

If you're feeling real adventurous (can I be named in your will?) you could use a steel drum and run about 90 lbs of air into it. The resulting blowout should spray water quite aways. All kidding aside, low pressure air might get the job done for you although I wouldn't expect a huge increase in the flow of water.

I like plastic because it doesn't rust. I've had steel drums rust up fast with water.

 

[tonyw]

I like Rob's idea since I've used it myself in the past. Elevating the barrels will give a little more gravity feed.
Since I have access to a water source now, I mainly use T-tape drip irrigation which uses less water and costs less than the recycled tire type soaker hoses. I do still have one area where I use the barrels though, and it beats the alternative of driving along and spraying water...plus, there's much less evaporation.

tonyw

 

[sss]

If gravity pressure wasn't enough, you could get a large boat bildge pump (over 1000GPM) for around $30-$40 and connect a hose to it. Wire it to a battery, drop it in the tank, barrel, etc. and you should have enough pressure for watering a garden. I've used a 1000GPM bildge pump to pump water from a pool and there was good flow from the end of a 50' hose

 

[Boondox]

Tried that, Bill. Not enough pressure for a soaker hose, but if you get one of those flimsy hoses with the row of tiny holes on top it manages to dribble out at a slow rate.

Pete

 

[MJB]

Water pressure from any tank will be a function of how high the surface of the water is from the point of use. Since water weighs about 62.4 lbs per cubic foot it will exert a pressure of 62.4 lbs per square foot per foot of depth. Converting to PSI gives you 0.433 PSI per foot of depth. If you had a drum about 3 feet high suspended a foot off the ground you would then have 1.73 PSI at ground level when the barrel is full and 0.43 PSI when the barrel is just empty. Hope this helps.

 

[Bob_Trevithick]

<font color=blue>How "remote" are these areas?? How frequently would you want to water them? How much water would be required each time?</font color=blue>

Oh, we're talking probably 300 feet from the nearest faucet. As for how often I would water, the way the weather has been this year who can say? We may have big-time rain, or no rain. I tilled up probably about a half acre the other day, and we may make it a tad bigger depending on how we decide to space things. Seems like a lot of water, even if it were being carried in 55-gallon drums, doesn't it? Maybe it would be better to lay some plastic pipe in a ditch and get myself some real water out there.

Thanks for all the feedback, everyone. I got some ideas from it, and have a better handle on what the issues involved are. What a wealth of knowledge there is to be tapped into on this forum!

Thanks,
Bob

 

[TresCrows]

I just installed about 400 feet of 0.05 poly tubing for a drip system for my "back four" trees. It was to much to drag a hose. I considered the water tank option but it was to costly to rig a trailer and the tanks are rather expensive and then a roller pump of the PTO etc. I ran the poly tubing to the trees and then there is only one place where a hose attaches. This hose will be on an electronic timer. In the winter I can blow out the tubing and remove the hose. I did not run the tubing all the way to the house, the connection is about 50 yards out. The drip stuff is pretty cheap. I did not bury it real deep because in AZ I had installed it under the lava rock and mulch and I felt it would be OK about 6 inches down here. I used the boxblade with one tine down to dig the trench--worked great. J

 

[Scott_in_WVA]

Get yourself a 6 or 7 ft sections of 50' or 3 or 4 sections of 100' hose, it does not have to be expensive hose,it would be a lot simpler and not that expensive.

 

[gerard]

300 feet makes it simple. This is what I did to go 250 feet to our pasture. Bought a coil of the black polypipe (1 inch). Dug a shallow trench (I'm talking 6 inches, used the loader) and ran from where I have a spigot at the house to where I want the water. The pipe just comes out of the ground there. You put the appropriate ends on the end of the poly and screw a hose on each end and you then have water from the house. Bascially you make a long extension hose that's buried in the ground but you don't have to lug it around, it's a lot cheaper than hose, and in the winter I just blow it out with the compressor. If you REALLY want to make it look good sink a 4 x 4 post in the ground and run it up that with hose clamps and a faucet. Then you can turn it on and off at the garden instead of going back to the house all the time. Lot easier than hauling.

 

[Knight9]

I agree with the posts that talk about using poly lines. When I seeded our lawn I watered the lawn with water pumped from a dugout 300 ft away. I had lots of pressure with an average trash pump. I did not bury the line but just rolled it up and out of the way. If you can do that it will take more time for setup (especially if you bury the line) but in the long run it will save time as you won't have to fill up a tank, haul it somewhere, and then drain it....and repeat.

Kevin

 

[BrettW]

Is poly tubing like hose pipe material only much longer? Dont know what poly tubing is, but I'm looking at the same project in a few years. Could you use the tiller if you removed most of the tines? Pain in the --- I know. bw

 

[billboe]

Poly tubing that I know comes in rolls... For drip systems, you normally either have 1/2 inch or 5/8 inch diameter in rolls ranging from 50' to 500'.

 

[TresCrows]

Sorry, Bill is correct, that was a typo, I meant 0.5 inches, 1/2 inch diameter. I used this for a main trunk line and then went off to each tree with the micro tubing which is much smaller. To the micro tubing I attached various types of drippers depending on the size and type of tree and it's presumed needs. It is a piece of cake. Sorry for the confusion.
No it is not like a water hose. It is not especially rigid so it can be flexed easily but it will easily kink or even crush I am told if deeply buried. It is also fairly cheap.
J

 

[Rch]

To reduce the amount of H2O needed, I line the hole for the tree with 1-1/4" sump pump hose with perforations punched in it and bring it out of the ground. I use a plastic bag to plug it. This is only for bigger trees. You can also fertilize with very dilute liquid fertilizer. Putting water just aound a tree when the whole field is dry is like a drop of water on a blotter- it gets sucked away from the tree. You can use polyacrilamide crystals that hold 400-600 times their weight in water in the hole (Terra-Sorb is a brand name but nursery supply houses or, in our area, the DNR nursery sell a generic version much cheaper. )Use sparingly- I put in too much the first year and when it rained it pushed the tree out of the ground like a giant zit erupting. For seedlings you have the roots sitting in a blobby/jelly solution and enough clings to the roots. This also lubricates the roots if you have bundle of seedlings and reduces trauma as you seperate them, especially important with plant with luxurious roots ( pines, ash ) How you plant a tree helps survival through that all important first year, especially a July/ August dry spell.

 

[don123]

during our drought several years ago, we purchased a 225 gallon tank (just about loaded my chevy truck down while full) and several "horseshoe waterers" (made by horseshoe ind., arkansas) these are 9 gallon plastic tubs that fit around the tree trunk and have weep holes to slowly release water.

if anyone wants , i will post photos....