I can see what appears to be the high spot for a tank/pond. The northeatridge that would appear to be the highest point on you terraced plot. The slope away from it toward the two lower elivations. utilizing your terrace levies as a water dain/irrigration conduit. Think in time to pre water pumps. The roman copied the greek in the use of gravity feed water systems and many are still in use tooday. Save youself a chunk of change and copy the early civilations. Somethings need no modern improvement.

Ok forget the tank at the high spot. but pump to a higher reservoir dug or concrete, and use gravity from there. Only reqires a single line from pump to resivoir. good luck Your land reminds me of assam, india, Beautiful tea plantations and not a modern irrigation pump in sight.

The top two thirds of the tea is Assam. At first I will only be irrigating the Sinensis at the bottom 1/3, because Assam does pretty well on its own.

I think I will test how far the pump can pump up hill, and then perhaps establish a reservoir at that height. If I can get the water 10 meters above the Sinensis I will have enough pressure for drip tape. Then my pumping will only be to fill the reservoir, and I will avoid some of the issues of working out how many runs of drip tape can go at once with direct pumping.

Or perhaps a combination approach as I may have to direct pump the higher tiers.

But you are right that the pond is above the level of some of the tea, but not much.

I am going to mention another possible future problem, just being th pessimist that my father raised. It6s not any of my business, but what paper do you/partner have on this land? You are aware of the angle of the land, which if more steep than the government set limit mades said land inillegable for any use including farming?

I think you have started a great idea/poject and hope your plan is successful both montarly and practrally. Good luck in your venture,

Well its all land like that out here, we are in the mountains, and my wife's family has been farming here for a couple of generations. So if they are gunna have a problem with it they will have a problem every farm in the area. Thanks for the heads up though.

If you want to look at irrigation products try this website,, www.Superproducts.co.th. Their actual catalogue used to contain many formula for working out sizes of pumps pipes and sprinklers;. if you want a particular bit of information or formula pm me an Email address and I can scan them for you. My experience of irrigation has been acquired over several years, but on totally different land, so I cannot give advice

Time to update this thread. I have changed my plans a bit. I have built a tank above the tea, so now the water will be pumped into the tank and will come back down by gravity.

I am using drip tape and I will be ready to do a test run some time next week. However. One question I have is: How long a length of drip tap can be used?

The inlet to the tape is only1/2 inch in diameter. and the pressure will be between 1 and 2 Bar.

How long can I run that tape and still get 1 bar (required) pressure throughout the length of the tape? Each tape will be laid out on a level plane with no variation in elevation along the length of it.

I do not know the flow rate of the drip tape, they have it listed as 2, which I do not understand what that refers to.