Watering advice needed

[Matthew Reed]

I had the bright idea of putting some shrub bubblers through my garden for water. Problem - my well can't put enough volume to run more then 4 of these at a time. I use a well to water the garden, so I can't really use a drip system that runs for hours at a time - I need to turn on the pump, water, and turn the pump off. I thought of sprinklers, but for tomatoes and corn they don't work because I have no way to put the sprinkler head 5 or 6 feet up. But with a low volume pump, I either use some sort of sprinkler system, or I spend an hour or so watering by hand.. My well can run 3 impact sprinklers at about 20 psi, and that actually works well for stuff that doesn't get very tall. I've thought of just figuring out how to put them high enough to get the corn and tomatoes. So...any suggestions? What is a good way to water with a (relatively) low volume pump? Oh, and the soil here is such that water just soaks in. I grow my stuff in beds, but I can't flood the bed because the water drains into the soil too fast.

[Vivek.M]

Hello, check this out:

's a article on diffues irrigation using a mud pot. Mud pot's are porus and leech moisture in to the soil..MInd you, i don't know if it works so..

[Lawrence Akutagawa]

Why not acquire a holding tank/container of suitable volume, elevate it to assure adequate water pressure, and pump the water into the tank/container? Then when the tank/container is full or nearly so, turn off pump. Tank/container volume should be such as to support minimally one watering cycle.

[Matthew Reed]

I thought of that, but not sure it's worth the trouble and expense. I'd have to basically put it on the roof to get the pressure I need, or build a tower or something. When I lived in Saudi Arabia, we had a flat roof with a water tank on the roof. We had to manually turn the pump on and off to fill the tank. In the summer, the water tended to be luke warm because it was hot and the tank was in the sun. That is the kind of tank I need!

[Kay Lancaster]

Are you worried about the long cycle time, or by the lack of pressure? Do you have a pressure tank in the system? Have you considered an automatic timer?

[Matthew Reed]

Both. Because of the low volume, I can't use the bubblers I initially planned on because my pump doesn't put out enough volume to maintain the pressure. I can't flood the beds because the water soaks into the soil faster then my pump pumps it. I'm currently using a couple of impact sprinklers, which actually work very well, as my pump can drive 3 at 30 psi. Once I get a permanent system in place I can put it on a timer- I figure a standard lawn sprinkler timer would probably work, I think I can setup 4 zones to cover everything. I'm just not sure how to get the water to the tall stuff like corn and tomatoes.