Irrigation, will this work?

[3MR]

Has anybody thought about this or tired it? what am I missing? Do you think it will work or not?

My place is 1 mile deep by a half mile wide. I have a well in the middle and one about a quarter mile in from the front, not counting the house well that I could use as well if needed.

Soaker hose is about $50 for 250 ft. If I buy 2 miles of it I would be at about $1100. I think I could cover a big chunk of the place by snaking it through the pastures and moving it around like a K-line. You wouldnt get the same coverage by length as a K-line, but I think you would get better coverage by investment and could do it with lower waterpressure.

What are your thoughts. Thats still a big chunk to invest in something that winds up not helping at all.

 

[dun]

The resistance in the hose would get to the point that you probably wouldn't even be getting any water out of it after a distance.

dun

 

[3MR]

what if I put a higher pressure pump on it. It still wouldnt use more water it would just overcome the resistance I think. :?:

 

[dun]

Then the hose would probably blow out closer to the supply end. We run 120 lbs peak and 95 low end pressure and in the conventional seeper house there is less flow from the far end in comparison to the supply end, and thats only 100 foot.

dun

 

[3MR]

The only other thing I can think of is maybe an inline pump. Otherwise its back to the drawing board.

 

[DoubleK]

The only other thing I can think of is maybe an inline pump. Otherwise its back to the drawing board.

Hello 3MR

How are things over there? What is it that your trying to irrigate? If its pasture, how many gallons per day would you expect to be putting on?

I been thinking of trying to irrigate about 7 acres and I'm not sure how to go about that.

Any ideas would be helpful.


Dub

 

[Bluestem]

Buy 4 or 5 lengths tie them together and give it a try. Bet the water never gets to the 3 length. Been there done that. To much friction in the pipe. It would take alot of pressure to overcome the friction. And you would end up blowing the pipe out. You could put pumps inline. But is that cost effective? I may be in the same boat as you. My plan- empty my stock tanks on my pastures in sept, for a winter pasture. I"m going to use PVC with sprinkers heads. Should work- if the tanks have water in them in sept.

 

[dun]

Depending on the lay of the land, we used to take 1/2 inch poly pipe from a psring head and run it down hill to a small catch basin then take anohter piece and run it out of the top of the catch basin to a lower elevation, etc. Had areas about 1/2 acre in size around the catrch basins that grew good grass. Off course everything else was dead as a rock, but at least th cows had some grass as they went form water spot to water spot.

dun

 

[MikeC]

Pressure loss:

Example

Pipe=2 " Class 200 PVC
Entering Water=75 Gallons per minute (Max.)
Length=5280 feet (1 mile)
Resulting Pressure loss (Friction loss)= 160 PSI (approx. 3 PSI/per 100 feet)

 

[MikeC]

The only other thing I can think of is maybe an inline pump. Otherwise its back to the drawing board.

Hello 3MR

How are things over there? What is it that your trying to irrigate? If its pasture, how many gallons per day would you expect to be putting on?

I been thinking of trying to irrigate about 7 acres and I'm not sure how to go about that.

Any ideas would be helpful.


Dub

Small "Reel" system would do you just fine.

http://www.kifco.com/waterreelanimation.html

 

[Running Arrow Bill]

Strongly advise against using soaker hose...significant pressure losses via small pipe diameter and interior roughness of pipe. Also, management issues of having all that hose in pasture. Other issue...soaker hose "soaks water DOWN", not out.

Overhead sprinklers only way to go. We use portable Rainbird sprinkler units we assembled attached to 3/4" hose (100' max.) to achieve about 50' radius watering. Also use 1.5" SCH 40 PVC pipe attached to fence rows with Rainbird brass sprinkler heads attached about every 75' of so.

JMO...
Retired Texas Licensed Irrigator

 

[3MR]

The only other thing I can think of is maybe an inline pump. Otherwise its back to the drawing board.

Hello 3MR

How are things over there? What is it that your trying to irrigate? If its pasture, how many gallons per day would you expect to be putting on?

I been thinking of trying to irrigate about 7 acres and I'm not sure how to go about that.

Any ideas would be helpful.


Dub

right now I want to irrigate pasture. Hopefully we will get some rain in Sept and recover a bit.

I havent really gotten around to making an estimate on Gallons per day as I havent figured out a system to use yet and that makes a big difference on water usage. I know I cant afford any of the commercial ones right now. I have sort of played around on paper with a home made version of a K-line, but it has some problems as well. Whatever I do will have to be protable as my pastures are interspersed with treed fence lines and woods.

 

[3MR]

Buy 4 or 5 lengths tie them together and give it a try. Bet the water never gets to the 3 length. Been there done that. To much friction in the pipe. It would take alot of pressure to overcome the friction. And you would end up blowing the pipe out. You could put pumps inline. But is that cost effective? I may be in the same boat as you. My plan- empty my stock tanks on my pastures in sept, for a winter pasture. I"m going to use PVC with sprinkers heads. Should work- if the tanks have water in them in sept.

3 of my 4 tanks were already empty in March.

I have 5ac pasture on city water that my mom has literally been moving lawn sprinklers around on. Only helps a little, but every little bit counts right now. I told her I wasnt sure it was worth the trouble, but she said it wasnt that big of a deal and the calfs seem to enjoy playing in them.

 

[3MR]

The only other thing I can think of is maybe an inline pump. Otherwise its back to the drawing board.

Hello 3MR

How are things over there? What is it that your trying to irrigate? If its pasture, how many gallons per day would you expect to be putting on?

I been thinking of trying to irrigate about 7 acres and I'm not sure how to go about that.

Any ideas would be helpful.


Dub

Small "Reel" system would do you just fine.

http://www.kifco.com/waterreelanimation.html

I was lookign at those on the internet. How much waterpressure do you need to use it. I also couldnt find any cost estimates. Do you have one? How much was it?

I would need one with about a quarter mile of hose. would that still be to long for even this kind of system.

 

[msscamp]

If I buy 2 miles of it I would be at about $1100.

It would take one helluva pump to push water that far, and I'm not sure that pump has been invented, yet, nor could a soaker hose handle it. I know that, with a pump that produces 40 psi, we can't push water much more than a mile (if that) in irrigation pipe, much less 2. Maybe I'm missing something, though. Plus, it looks to me like the much smaller circumference of the soaker hose would only achieve getting your hose blown off the connector because there is no where to go with the pressure.

 

[3MR]

yeah, I have pretty much thrown the soaker idea out the window. Im still up for alternative suggestions though.