Solar Powered Drip Irrigation

[Bandersnatch]

Not sure where to post this. I bet that the guys over in the Renewable Energy Forum will not be interested in my garden, but I am not sure how many people here are interested in using solar.

 

Anyway, here is a video of my Solar Powered Drip Irrigation system with a tour of it in operation in my garden in Surin

 

 

[djayz]

I thoroughly enjoyed that video clip. Thank you for sharing. 

 

I now find myself at a point where I have to put in an irrigation system on our 3.5 rai plot of land. I had thought of using a pump (4hp - 5hp) to pump from the pond around the land. I hadn't really considered using solar power until now. 

Can you tell me a little more about the solar panels and bigger pump? Where did you get them? Did you install them yourself? About how much for the bigger, 3 panel setup? 

 

Not trying to be a wise guy, but from my limited knowledge of gardening, I always assumed that a spray system is better than a drip system for bigger plants as this waters a wider area around the plant and promotes root growth. 

Edited December 11, 2021 by djayz

[CLW]

25 minutes ago, djayz said:

I thoroughly enjoyed that video clip. Thank you for sharing. 

 

I now find myself at a point where I have to put in an irrigation system on our 3.5 rai plot of land. I had thought of using a pump (4hp - 5hp) to pump from the pond around the land. I hadn't really considered using solar power until now. 

Can you tell me a little more about the solar panels and bigger pump? Where did you get them? Did you install them yourself? About how much for the bigger, 3 panel setup? 

 

Not trying to be a wise guy, but from my limited knowledge of gardening, I always assumed that a spray system is better than a drip system for bigger plants as this waters a wider area around the plant and promotes root growth. 

From my experience drip irrigation for bigger plants is quite maintenance intensive. Drip heads often clog or have some malfunction. Also even with the biggest emitter you still need a dozen or so for bigger plants. In my garden I have switched now to micro-sprinkler in different models. Better IMO

[Bandersnatch]

1 hour ago, djayz said:

I thoroughly enjoyed that video clip. Thank you for sharing. 

 

I now find myself at a point where I have to put in an irrigation system on our 3.5 rai plot of land. I had thought of using a pump (4hp - 5hp) to pump from the pond around the land. I hadn't really considered using solar power until now. 

Can you tell me a little more about the solar panels and bigger pump? Where did you get them? Did you install them yourself? About how much for the bigger, 3 panel setup? 

 

Not trying to be a wise guy, but from my limited knowledge of gardening, I always assumed that a spray system is better than a drip system for bigger plants as this waters a wider area around the plant and promotes root growth. 

My land is about the same size 

 

Firstly I would say my expertise is more on the solar side than the gardening side.

 

I have installed 4 solar pumps in Thailand so far  - 2 I installed myself  and 2 I outsourced.

 

My first solar pump was for my house build. "Builder said they can start on Monday but they need water" 

 

I bought the well pump and solar panel from the same shop in the next province, but had to make the panel frame myself and do the install 

 

Cost about ฿20,000

 

I then did a surface pump install at my local primary school  - taking water from a pond to water plants. This was a smaller system and cost about ฿10,000

 

 

 

 

I outsourced 2 on my land, the smaller one featured in the video cost ฿20,000 plus ฿6,000 to drill the well. The bigger one was about ฿50,000 all in. The pipes and connectors are not expensive and we installed them over a period of 3 years so I couldn't tell you the total cost, but a trip to Thaiwatsadu, HomePro, Global House, etc you would you would be able find the cost for your situation. The bigger solar well pump is also a backup for the house water system as we off-grid for water and so is oversized. My installer here in Surin provided the pump and panels you can contact him @ http://www.8urich.com 

  

I have used both a spray system and a drip system - The spray system uses much much more water and as it over-sprays it tends to encourage weed growth. The drip system just puts water just at the plants, but I agree it is more work to setup up and maintain.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Bandersnatch

[Grafting Ken]

We are just setting up a drip system on our small finger lime orchard but using an 8mm micro dripline for around each tree. 6 emitters

For each tree with a 20lph emitter first so I can give each tree exactly the right amount of water.

for drip irrigation products and emitters here you really should take a look at Netafim or you can order Netafim products on Facebook from Plume. Much better quality products.

as for sprinkler vs drip I prefer drip gives a much deeper watering and don’t have to use so much water.

We have the same system in the garden that’s been running for 3 years they never block if using a good filter correct components for the drip system.

[chrisjr761]

Get a Sawyer Squeeze and a CNOC bladder for filthy water. For about 120 days, I've been using these two items. It's easy and quick.
Steripens, gravity filters, and pump filters are all sluggish.

Some people thread Sawyer filters onto Smart water bottles, but it's tough to pressurise the bottle sufficiently to extract the final 1/4 litre. A CNOC style bladder is also simpler to fill from some water sources than a Smart water Filter bottle.

[traujo]

Grafting Ken,

Can you use any fertilizer such as manure with drip irrigation? If the fertilizer is on top of the dripline, it wouldn’t get into he ground easily as with microsprinklers, would it?

Josef

[CLW]

1 hour ago, traujo said:

Grafting Ken,

Can you use any fertilizer such as manure with drip irrigation? If the fertilizer is on top of the dripline, it wouldn’t get into he ground easily as with microsprinklers, would it?

Josef

You would have to incorporate the manure thoroughly into the soil around the plants and possibly cover with some mulching. That's how I would do it.

[Grafting Ken]

2 hours ago, traujo said:

Grafting Ken,

Can you use any fertilizer such as manure with drip irrigation? If the fertilizer is on top of the dripline, it wouldn’t get into he ground easily as with microsprinklers, would it?

Josef

Same as CLW says. We use a cut and mulch system so I’ll fertilise then cut and mulch over the trees. I’ve used rice straw on the new orchard as a first mulch but I won’t use it again as starting to get enough weeds and grass growing to keep building things up.

[Grafting Ken]

At the moment our set up is just gravity fed but when I put the last 300 or so trees in I will have to fit the pump. When I fit the pump I will put a ventury injector in the system and feed the trees that way.

[dinga]

On 12/11/2021 at 12:39 PM, Bandersnatch said:

My land is about the same size 

 

Firstly I would say my expertise is more on the solar side than the gardening side.

 

I have installed 4 solar pumps in Thailand so far  - 2 I installed myself  and 2 I outsourced.

 

My first solar pump was for my house build. "Builder said they can start on Monday but they need water" 

 

I bought the well pump and solar panel from the same shop in the next province, but had to make the panel frame myself and do the install 

 

Cost about ฿20,000

 

I then did a surface pump install at my local primary school  - taking water from a pond to water plants. This was a smaller system and cost about ฿10,000

 

 

 

 

I outsourced 2 on my land, the smaller one featured in the video cost ฿20,000 plus ฿6,000 to drill the well. The bigger one was about ฿50,000 all in. The pipes and connectors are not expensive and we installed them over a period of 3 years so I couldn't tell you the total cost, but a trip to Thaiwatsadu, HomePro, Global House, etc you would you would be able find the cost for your situation. The bigger solar well pump is also a backup for the house water system as we off-grid for water and so is oversized. My installer here in Surin provided the pump and panels you can contact him @ http://www.8urich.com 

  

I have used both a spray system and a drip system - The spray system uses much much more water and as it over-sprays it tends to encourage weed growth. The drip system just puts water just at the plants, but I agree it is more work to setup up and maintain.

Great thread, but I can't see where you answered the question about the pump sizes.  See you have 4 pumps - 1.  What are their sizes?  Appreciate the model numbers so I can locate the specifications.  2.  Also appreciate if you could advise how many trees/plants are watered by each pump (think you said the drippers provide 20 litres per hour).  How many hours do you run each pump? How many days a week do you water the trees? (so I can get an idea of the total water needs)

 

Thanks again!

[Bandersnatch]

18 hours ago, dinga said:

Great thread, but I can't see where you answered the question about the pump sizes.  See you have 4 pumps - 1.  What are their sizes?  Appreciate the model numbers so I can locate the specifications.  2.  Also appreciate if you could advise how many trees/plants are watered by each pump (think you said the drippers provide 20 litres per hour).  How many hours do you run each pump? How many days a week do you water the trees? (so I can get an idea of the total water needs)

 

Thanks again!

I discussed the size of pumps in the first video  - did you watch it? 

 

Pump 1  - backup for my rainwater harvesting system for household water  - 350W 30m  - now 5 years old

Pump 2 - installed at my local primary school 300W surface pump bringing water from a pond to water the school veg garden (see second video) - now 5 years old

Pump 3  - 350W 30m first drip irrigation pump covers about 200m of main line PE pipe with drip irrigation about every meter - now 4 years old 

Pump 4  - 750W 50m second drip irrigation pump covers about 300m of main line PE pipe with drip irrigation about every meter - nearly 3 years old

 

In total 500m of main line PE pipe - could water about 500 trees.

 

I have never measured the water volume produced but you will get a clear idea if you watch the video below as you can see it in action without drip irrigation. I also discuss the make of pump - I am sorry I do not have any model numbers and I am sure they have all been superseded by newer models by now

 

We only run the drip irrigation in the dry season about one day a week for the hours that the solar panels are in sun. 

 

 

 

 

[dinga]

EXCELLENT - thanks (yes - I did watch the 1st video - and just watched it again

 

BRs