Will gravity be enough in itself?

[bannork]

Greetings fellow farmers and gardeners. The situation is this. I have 4 strips of land approx 300 metres long each, the width of each is 4 metres. I intend to plant bananas down the strips, flanked by various trees, plants and herbs.

I want to water these with mini sprinklers approx 1 metre above the ground.

To power these, I'm building  a water tower at the top of the field. This will be 5 or 6 metres in height and supplied by a submersible pump in the bore well.

Assuming I only open the valve on one strip of land at a time, does anyone know if gravity could power approx  75 mini sprinklers ( assuming 1 every 4 metres)?!

Thanking any informed posters in advance.

 

[In the jungle]

The short answer to your question is no it will not work.

 

Here is a website that will enable you to work out what is required:

 

https://www.irrigationtutorials.com/

 

A water tower 5 to 6 metres gives only 0.5 to 0.6 bar of pressure before losses in the system.

 

My finger in the breeze estimate is that you need a 2hp centrifugal pump at the base of the tower, 2" pipework and break up the area into zones using valves to water one zone at a time.

 

Better if you do the research and calcs though.

 

Personally I wouldn't bother with a water tower at all.  Cheaper, safer and easier to maintain the system using water storage at ground level.

[Tagged]

Have you trought about drip watering system?

 

I do that now and gravity feed works perfect for less than one bar pressure. My thanks os from 30 cm to 6 meter elevated from top to bottom. 

 

 

[talahtnut]

I've made a similar system from a

well on a hill which gives me 1 bar

but I can only use drippers which

I leave on, unless its raining.

You might consider large bore delivery

to the drippers.

[jvs]

Why not use the pump to pump water to the tower to pump to the trees straight away?

I think a tower is very old fashioned and imo a few solar panels and a dc pump will do the job for you.

You could also dig a trench in the middle of your land strips and pump water in there,will save a lot of

piping and much easier to work with.Need pretty level land for this to work.

Al depends of course how far along your tower is already,i would guess building a tower like that can be

a lot of work and cost a lot.

No need to store water if you have a good well.

[Grafting Ken]

Drip is a good way to go without a pump, I make these rings up myself from micro drip line and can irrigate 80 plus trees at a time just from the tap.

[Grafting Ken]

From your tower you should be able to use 40 or so of these little fellas at a time with no pump.

[Grumpy John]

In the jungle summed it up pretty well.  It's not as straight forward as you may think.  There are charts to refer to for reliable information as to pipe diameter, pressure drop,  friction losses.  Do some research.

[Heppinger]

On 5/8/2020 at 7:48 PM, Tagged said:

Have you trought about drip watering system?

 

I do that now and gravity feed works perfect for less than one bar pressure. My thanks os from 30 cm to 6 meter elevated from top to bottom. 

 

 

That's some beautiful country you have there, may i ask as to what region of Thailand this is?

[Speedo1968]

What a wonderful selection of information, thank you to all who have replied.
( Involved in farming since the early 60's, UK and other countries including desert areas.  Unfortunately now retired ).

Good luck to the OP, I am sure you will get it sorted.

[Tagged]

17 hours ago, Heppinger said:

That's some beautiful country you have there, may i ask as to what region of Thailand this is?

Chaiyaphum close to Petchabun border. Some few nice viewpoints along the road here. 

 

 

[IsaanAussie]

WOW Tagged, if that is your motorcycle, I am impressed. Not quite a subsistence Farmers ride though. 

[Tagged]

3 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

WOW Tagged, if that is your motorcycle, I am impressed. Not quite a subsistence Farmers ride though. 

Have farmers ride to 

 

 

[Skallywag]

On 5/8/2020 at 4:48 PM, Tagged said:

Have you trought about drip watering system?

 

I do that now and gravity feed works perfect for less than one bar pressure. My thanks os from 30 cm to 6 meter elevated from top to bottom. 

 

 

Fill those HDPE caged tanks up with some H2O and let it run for 24 hours, then see what you got . Looks good to me ✌️????

[IsaanAussie]

12 hours ago, Tagged said:

Have farmers ride to 

 

 

Where did you get the ATV trailer? What did it cost? 

[Tagged]

1 hour ago, IsaanAussie said:

Where did you get the ATV trailer? What did it cost? 

Mine 32 000,- at http://www.thaiatvsales.com

 

Have David who speak english to deal with. 
 

Some few chiches they have, and so far very happy with my trailer even the price is a bit high, but good quality!

[IsaanAussie]

Thanks for posting the details. Too rich for me. Looks like I will be making my own. My ATV is only 150cc and I was quoted 15K for a trailer to suit. I want to use it as a boom spray as well as a mobile solar panel and other equipment unit. 

[Tagged]

1 hour ago, IsaanAussie said:

Thanks for posting the details. Too rich for me. Looks like I will be making my own. My ATV is only 150cc and I was quoted 15K for a trailer to suit. I want to use it as a boom spray as well as a mobile solar panel and other equipment unit. 

The last one there is 16k I think 

[IsaanAussie]

This is the one I was quoted 15K for. Second picture is our little ATV. First I need to find a tank for the spray system. ATV rated to tow 300 kg, so ideally about 250 litre tank. 

[Tagged]

1 hour ago, IsaanAussie said:

This is the one I was quoted 15K for. Second picture is our little ATV. First I need to find a tank for the spray system. ATV rated to tow 300 kg, so ideally about 250 litre tank. 

Just a blue drum will do the jobb? Less volum, less fluid moving while driving. Great tool for fam theese atv’s 

 

Especially when no roads to access the land except small bumpy trials.

[IsaanAussie]

Just now, Tagged said:

Just a blue drum will do the jobb? Less volum, less fluid moving while driving.

A 200 litre drum would do the job. I would prefer to get a flat tank to get the CofG down as low as possible. I have seen them here, they are usually just rotary moulded with a high percentage of reground plastic and not that expensive. 

God, I am getting old! They probably 3D print the damn things to exactly what you want these days.........

 

[Tagged]

52 minutes ago, IsaanAussie said:

A 200 litre drum would do the job. I would prefer to get a flat tank to get the CofG down as low as possible. I have seen them here, they are usually just rotary moulded with a high percentage of reground plastic and not that expensive. 

God, I am getting old! They probably 3D print the damn things to exactly what you want these days.........

 

That was a good idea, 

I only had my eye for the ibc containers around here, but there is loads of used plastic tanks everywhere you go, so shouldnt be hard to find something proper. 

[IsaanAussie]

Just now, Tagged said:

I only had my eye for the ibc containers

Probably what I will use. Have the ability to overload if the conditions allow and to gauge volume ratios, maybe more importantly they have larger size drains etc.. and they come with their own "roll cage".

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by IsaanAussie