Well sucking air - no rain

[Donman]

I have a shallow well point that is sucking air when I sprinkle my garden. This well is in my outbuilding 1/8 mile from my house. A good rain will fix this problem but we don't seem to be getting that lately. I have been thinking of filling 2 or 3 plastic 55 gal drums in a trailer and rigging up a pto pump to sprinkle with. Any other suggestions?

 

[slowrev]

The drums sound like a good idea, just be sure the drums are good and clean, wouldn't want roundup or some toxic chemical on the garden /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Ben

 

[bczoom]

Donman,

Is the source of water you're now going to get it from also in danger of going dry? Hate to loose house water to do the garden.

I don't know how big your garden is, but instead of using a PTO pump and sprinkler, think it may be a good idea to gravity/syphon feed out of the drums and apply just to the plant area? 100-200 gallons won't go far. A friend of mine just borrowed one of my 200 gallon tanks to water some of his small (maybe 15' high) fancy maple trees. He put 400-600 gallons on each tree and they're just getting by.

Brian

 

[_RaT_]

Wow, if we depended on summer rain to replenish our wells, our wells would be dry by May or June.

 

[johan3400]

I am pumping water from our ponds to water my garden plots. I pump into a 125 gallong 3pt tank and use a 3pt pump to water the gardens. It sure would be better to get a rain.

 

[Donman]

No problem at the house - I have 15 feet of head in the pipe there. At the shed the well is only 11 feet to the clay with a 4 ft layer of water sand above it. Maybe I should pull the 3' point and replace it with an 18" point That might get me by until we get rain. I like your idea of siphon to each plant as far as water usage goes but that would be time consuming, but so would hooking up a PTO pump - only that would be more fun.

"what DO you know?"

 

[slowrev]

don't ya need a new tractor to run that PTO pump /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Or would that excuse fly ?

Ben

 

[bczoom]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( "what DO you know?" )</font>

Me??? Nothing. But I do feel more like I do now then when I got here.

 

[boustany]

Off topic, but you want to install a Low Pressure Cut Off pressure switch before you fry your pump.

They aren't made to run dry for very long ...

 

[db2]

I've used a 12V pump similar to the one I've linked. I'm not sure how much water you have to move but this might work. Quiet and no need to burn fuel to run it.

12V pump