It took about five hours over two days to get the drip irrigation system installed. Nearly an hour of that time was spent unsnarling a tangle of 1/2-in. poly pipe. The crow's nest was my own creation when I carelessly unwound the pipe on the fifth row of vines. It was really a mess.
But that was yesterday. This morning, the drip system is dripping away as I write this post, which may be the best part. I'm inside, freshly showered and eating cantaloupe while my irrigation system is hard at work.
My hand watering routine that got me to this point would take about an hour and a half, and was hardly an optimal method. The spray head put a soft, but high volume of water on in a short time, always resulting in some runoff. I was never sure how deep the water penetrated the clay soil, although I have no complaints about the condition of the grapevines to this point.
The vineyard kit I installed has heads that water at the rate of 1/2-gal. per hour, which is the recommended rate for clay-based soils to allow for deep watering. The installation was pretty simple other than the stooping to install the drip heads.
I built a make-shift hose bib that I connect to the shop with a garden hose. The irrigation system attaches to the make-shift hose bib starting with a backflow preventer, a filter and a pressure regulator that reduces/maintains 25 psi on the irrigation lines.
There is a 3/4" poly pipe manifold running along the east end of the rows that is attached to the pressure regulator using a poly pipe connector. The 1/2-in. lateral lines are attached to the 3/4-in. manifold. Each lateral line is attached to the manifold using a "T" connector, and is capped off at the opposite end.
I laid out the pipe yesterday afternoon after work, then made the connections this morning. I flushed the lines, then installed the drip heads. As I noted, this was difficult only because of the stooping and kneeling. The kit has a nifty tool the punches a hole to allow for quick insertion of the drip heads.
We haven't had rain for a week with temperatures hovering on both sides of 100, but the vines have shown no sign of stress so far this week. I plan to run the system for four hours as a test drive this morning and see how the ground looks. I'm curious how large the pattern is after two gallons of water have slowly leaked at the base of each vine.
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| Drip, drip, dripping away |
My hand watering routine that got me to this point would take about an hour and a half, and was hardly an optimal method. The spray head put a soft, but high volume of water on in a short time, always resulting in some runoff. I was never sure how deep the water penetrated the clay soil, although I have no complaints about the condition of the grapevines to this point.
The vineyard kit I installed has heads that water at the rate of 1/2-gal. per hour, which is the recommended rate for clay-based soils to allow for deep watering. The installation was pretty simple other than the stooping to install the drip heads.
 |
Make-shift hose bib with backflow preventer,
filter and pressure regulator. It's connected
to the shop with a garden hose.
|
There is a 3/4" poly pipe manifold running along the east end of the rows that is attached to the pressure regulator using a poly pipe connector. The 1/2-in. lateral lines are attached to the 3/4-in. manifold. Each lateral line is attached to the manifold using a "T" connector, and is capped off at the opposite end.
I laid out the pipe yesterday afternoon after work, then made the connections this morning. I flushed the lines, then installed the drip heads. As I noted, this was difficult only because of the stooping and kneeling. The kit has a nifty tool the punches a hole to allow for quick insertion of the drip heads.
We haven't had rain for a week with temperatures hovering on both sides of 100, but the vines have shown no sign of stress so far this week. I plan to run the system for four hours as a test drive this morning and see how the ground looks. I'm curious how large the pattern is after two gallons of water have slowly leaked at the base of each vine.
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