Irrigation using speedfit or similar, ideas wanted

[tinnews]

I'm thinking of fitting semi-permanent pipework in our greenhouses (and maybe some other places) with a time switched pump to provide irrigation. The pump will use rainwater collected from the roof in a tank which will be topped up by mains water with a simple ball valve controlling that. (it may need to be slightly clever so that the mains only gets turned on when the tank is, say, only a quarter full).

An additional reason for using a pump is that our mains water pressure is very high and tends to destroy things which then gets expensive in lost water. A system as above will at least limit the rate of loss considerably.

So, in the greehouses I was thinking of running plastic around the edges and having some sort of small bore feeds to individual plants, pots, etc. Can anyone suggest a practical way to connect small bore feeds to plastic pipe? I know there are systems sold for doing this but my experience with them has been that they're not very robust or long lasting.

[NT]

In a greenhouse it makes a lot more sense to put large trays on the staging, add sand and water those. Or ISTR synthetic felt mats used for the same purpose.

NT

[tinnews]

OK, that is effectively what we do in one greenhouse, I suppose it wouldn't be too difficult to autmate the level of the water in the 'tray'.

However it won't work for tomatoes in gro-bags will it? (This isn't a

*big* growing installation, just domestic)

[Toby]

I would think you would be far better off using proper irrigation stuff, rather than speedfit...

pipe for your main supply round the greenhouse Some of these screwed directly into this supply pipe from these drip heads, some smaller pipe to each plant if you have a bed full of plants, then you run a 13mm pupe down the middle, and then screw somthing like this directly in I installed a system in my back garden, i used Gardena stuff everywhere, the only other thing I used for the pipes were 25mm MDPE pipe under the grass as my main supply, I installed a 12v valve at each lawn sprinkler, or lower bed, so i can control each area of the lawn and each bed. It's all fed from 8000L of rainwater storage :-)

Easy irrigation were just the first Google result for the items I wanted to show you, so hunt around for the best deal, I bought all my bits from a company called Grovelands, but I cant seem to see them anymore.

Toby...

[tinnews]

That's considerably more expensive than 20mm MDPE pipe which is about a thousand times more rubust.

I have *lots* of this already from previous failures.

My experience of Gardena (and other) irrigation systems aimed at the 'domestic' market is that they disintegrate or stop working by some means or other within 12 months or so.

The drip heads in particular either stop dripping altogether or stick open with too much flow. The chances of getting consistent watering over a number of heads closely approaches zero. Supplying a "Cleaning Needle" (as in the second link above) is almost an admission of defeat. They don't seriously expect the user to crawl around under the tomato plants poking at the drip feed do they?

[Toby]

Very easy with a ball-c*ck, with the arm bent down at a suitable level, but make sure the outlet is always above the water line.

>>> 13mm pipe for your main supply round the greenhouse

...but I expect you will then need special connectors to bring it down to a reasonable sized pipe to deliver the water won't you, rather than just screwing dripper heads into the pipe?

>>> Then from these drip heads, some smaller pipe to each plant

What were the previous failures?

>>> When I installed a system in my back garden, i used Gardena stuff

I have had mine in for several years, and as I have kept the supply water clean, I have not had blockages.

So if you keep the supply water clean, then there won't be anything to block the drippers will there.

Toby...

[tinnews]

>>

Mostly failed 'drippers' going to either "little fountain" or "nothing at all". An additional problem was that none of the pressure reducers supplied with the systems lasted very long and our mains water pressure is very high.

>>

How did 'you' keep it clean, it's surely up to the water company! :-)

Except that one needs to re-route and re-arrange feeds at times and then it's almost inevitable that some dirt gets into the system.

[Toby]

> >>

> >>

Most of my water is from the gutters, this feeds directly into a small water butt via a course mesh pond planting basket like this

removes the moss and leaves, and leaves the water clean enough for the first pump (Just a cheap "dirty water" pump, that is about 0.5 bar) I have to clean the basket out 3-4 times a year, and clean this barrel out once a year.

This then feeds into one of the two 1500L barrels (Call it barrel 1), via a material bag sort of thing (A bit like a sock with drawstrings on the top - when we bought some bathroom taps, they came in these little bags!)

This barrel is then connected to another barrel the same size and shape (call that barrel 2), just up from the bottom, and also to two IBC 1000L tanks via a one way valve (so water can flow into the 1500L barrel, but not out into the IBC's as they are shorter than the barrels)) most of the dirt that manages to get past that seems to settle at the bottom of Barrel 1 (I cleaned it out only a few months ago, and there was very little in there after over 2 years)

Then the overflow from the first barrel goes to the IBC's so they only fill when the 1500L barrels are full (but then empty when the level in the barrel drops to the height of the water in the IBC's.

The other three IBC's are at the top of the garden, fed from the garage roof, again via a smaller barrel with a basket strainer, but I have raised the barrel up to the height of the IBC's, so no pumps up there. These are manually emptied onto the lower ones at the moment, until I get another irrigation pump for them, or run another pipe down the garden.

The 2nd 1500L barrel contains the main irrigation pump (about 4 bar I think), there is a pressure vessel, a flow switch and a pressure switch so the system is pressurised, but then turns off when the flow switch is satisfied (meaning the pump is unable to pump any more water into the system) The pump will then turn on again only after you have drawn some water (about 10 liters) via the sprinklers, the standard taps on the system or the auto fill on the water feature - The pressure switch then switches the pump on thus triggering the flow switch which will keep the pump on until both it and the pressure switch are satisfied or the low level sensor in barrel 2 has triggered. (There is also a one way valve just after the pump, so the water does not just woosh back into the barrel when the pump turns off!)

There is then yet another filter in the outflow with a really fine mesh, this gets cleaned once per year, and does not seem to get all that dirty. (It is sort of like this, but it was made by Gardena, but they don't seem to sell them anymore

> So if you keep the supply water clean, then there won't be anything to >> block

This is true, but I cant see any way to stop this happening with any system you are having to take apart and reconfigure, when there is dirt involved!

Toby...

[AA]

water inlet in the aquavalve is very fine so some prefiltering required for rainwater, aquavalve is quite an interesting idea in itself , demand led but allows complete drying out before refresh, think principle similar to toilet cistern, gravity fed, no power required.

Adam

[tinnews]

That looks interesting, but quite expensive if the prices of their other products are anything to go by. I'll keep watching the site though.

Thanks.