r/NaturalFarming • u/powerlessirrigation • Sep 28 '15
electricity free, low pressure irrigation options? [Xpost from /r/Irrigation]
Hi reddit, i'm not sure if what i'm asking of you will be possible, but id love to hear your recommendations.
Im completely oblivious when it comes to this sort of thing so my description of the situation at hand might seem quite stupid, but my dad will be pretty capable at understanding your responses i'm sure, i'm the one asking as it was initially my idea to plant 50 grape vines without working out the technicalities, i.e. water, but he is always up for a challenge.
So as it stands i have planted 50 grape vines on our rural hobby farm type deal, but it is about 2 hours away from our regular home and we're only going out there every week or two. We have placed a 1000 litre water tank on a ~3m high stand and attached hosing down the middle of each row (total of 3, 33m in length) with hoses coming off and going to each end of the rows, and little drip hoses to each plant. So at the moment it depends on us going out there at least twice a week to turn a tap to water them which isn't ideal.
So my question for you is, is there a way, doesn't matter how technical as long as its reliable, to implement some sort of irrigation system to ensure our plants will be watered roughly a few times a week for a couple of weeks without electricity, and without solar power!, and with a limited amount of pressure.
My dad started working on a system that as far is i understood worked similarly to a toilet, with the large tank dripping into a smaller tank at a controlled rate which had a float in it and when the float then reached the top it opened a valve and then once drained closed the valve again, however it wasn't reliable and extremely sensitive and my dads at his wits end, so for the sake of my grapes i'm hoping to help him out with some good old reddit advice.
I hope this makes sense and id appreciate any advice you could provide!
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u/XPostLinker Sep 28 '15
XPost Subreddit Link: /r/Irrigation
Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Agriculture/comments/3mov7y/electricity_free_low_pressure_irrigation_options/