Hi, I am not sure how to use a water pump for my irrigation?

10 months ago

Hello! I am a total newbie, and also an over-planner! My cistern is lower than my beds and I think I need a water pump to add water pressure to my irrigation plan. I made a short little movie that shows my garden setup and irrigation plan.

I have never done anything like this before and am a total newbie. I really appreciate any help.

- How do I order the water pump, water timer and regulator so that the pump is happy and the timer can work?

- What should the pressure be on the regulators if I am using the 1/2 inch black tubing to my beds?

Thank you in advance for your help. I hope this thread helps others as well.

Comments (2)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
10 months ago
where are you. big city name..

what is your crop.. and why do you think it will need watering every day ... mango???

are you and experienced enough gardener.. to know when a plant needs water.. or are you an engineer.. lol .. watering .. as in givng a plant the water it needs.. is more an art.. than a science ... until you figure it all out.. then you can science the hell out of it..

and.. the most important thing in a pot.. and you simply have really biog pots.. is the medium.. or media... such is a water management system .. allowing said product to retain what a given plant needs.. while shedding excess ... e.g... if you are growing mango TREES in pots.. the water they need will be wildly different than a tomato crop.. etc .. presuming you will be watering daily or hourly might not be the right presumption .... so using a time might be hard....

there used to be a couple online irrigation outfits.. the name dripworks comes to mind.. that offered all kinds if advice and engineering services.. if you committed to buying product thru them.. i found a local guy who was very patient with me.. so i never used this outfit.. and have no experience with them directly ... not any financial interest

https://www.dripworks.com/?msclkid=c1dba43cc2dc181979bac0bfca583ae0&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Deft%20-%20Branded&utm_term=dripworks&utm_content=DripWorks%20-%20General%20Terms

just off the cuff.. 70 pounds of pressure sounds very extreme .. and you might need that to cover all the distance you are working with .... btw.. how are you watering.. when you get the the actual rectangle.. i used drip tape on the ground.. but it only needed 7 pounds of pressure ... etc ... you need professional guidance..

good luck

ken

you might be better off starting with a kit.. and then expanding it.. :

https://www.dripworks.com/drip-irrigation/irrigation-kits

this might be worth the investment:

https://www.dripworks.com/design-service
kevin9408
10 months ago
lets talk about you cistern first. For every foot the water level is at the top of the cistern there will be 0.433 PSI created. If your cistern water level is full and 10 feet above the your planters the highest pressure you'll ever get would be 4.3 PSI, but pressure will decrease as the water level drops, this is called head pressure. The head pressure isn't changed by the diameter or total volume of the cistern, only the height, so think water towers. With this said I can't accept what you said in your video having about 15 psi from the cistern unless the top of the water level is about 30 feet above your planters but enough on this subject.

you don't want or need 70 PSI any place in your system, and the regulated pressure to the planters only needs to be 25 psi for irrigation in your application. 30 to 50 psi output from a pump is all you need to run sprinklers or regulated down to 25 psi to run emitters and drippers. Water volume, pipe size, pipe distance and pressure all need to be considered to make your system work right. You want the right size pipe from the Cistern to the pump, and from the pump to the planters. From the Cistern to the pump the pipe size should be 1" and no less than a 3/4" diameter. A 1/2" pipe can only handle (at gravity to low pressure) 7 gallons per minute, a 3/4" I.d. pipe can handle 11 Gpm, and a 1" I.d. pipe will be 16 Gpm, and what you have is gravity/low pressure. You don't want to starve the suction side of a pump, it will overload the motor and/or collapse the suction pipe, so the suction pipe needs to be bigger than the water output pipe.

The pump can be any inexpensive 1/2 HP shallow well jet pump, the output of the jet pump should run into a pressure tank just as any shallow well pump would be configured, and together they will hold and maintain a pressure between 30 and 50 PSI with no problems and will handle most sprinklers. From the pressure tank you can than install a manifold with shut off valves for multiple hose connections and where you would install the 25 PSI regulators. (sprinklers would be unregulated.) You can then install any type of time and valve controller you want. This system will be automatic as long as you have water in your cistern, if the cistern goes dry your pump will self destruct.

If you plan on running big sprinklers other than normal sprinklers sold for home use then of course you'll need more pressure to move the water volume, and a pump system designed to pressurize water at a higher PSI and the volume required. These pumps will cost considerably more, for example I have a 1 hp sprinkler pump in the garage worth $1000 which will easily hit 60 PSI. (I paid $100 used) It runs continuously and swich the pump on and off and not the sprinkler, if pressure builds up and if a pressure switch was on this pump without a pressure tank it would cycle the pump every couple of seconds and it would overload and destroy the motor. So a pressure tank is required behind this type pump also if you wanted to do what you want. Pressure is determined by the tolerance of a pump. High tolerance pumps can produce higher pressures, at a higher price. Average tolerance will do the 50 psi most well pumps will do but hard to get them to 60 psi, and low tolerance is a mud and sump pump.

One of my inexpensive shallow well jet pumps used as a booster right now drawing from the house 100's of feet away. When the water in the ditch runs below I can pull water from the ditch.

My manifold is made from free parts. The regulators are on each circuit for the drippers and emitters and the top unregulated hose is for sprinklers and hand sprayers. The number of circuits you need will be determined by the volume of water you need based on the emitters or drippers in each circuit.

The potatoes on the left has 520 emitters rated at 0.8 Gph at 25PSI. And the corn on the right uses 200 emitters at 0.8 gph. This equals 576 gallons per hour, and a 1/2" pipe can handle 840 gallons per hour pressurized between 20 to 100 PSI. So if I wanted to water the beans in the back I need to valve off the potatoes or corn or the circuit pressure would drop well below 25 PSI after the regulator. Note I said 20 to 100 psi, so increasing pressure above 25 psi would not increase water volume, only pressure. Volume is limited by pipe size and distance. A pressure washer is a high pressure low volume device.

This is the other side I irrigate. I need a total of 3 circuits supplied by 1/2" pipe each for everything. The hose from the pump/pressure tank to the manifold is 3/4" and will carry 1410 Gph when pressurized from between 20 and 100 Psi. This is almost twice the volume 1/2" pipe will handle, so there is no problem getting the volume at my manifold.
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Hi, I am not sure how to use a water pump for my irrigation?

Comments (2)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5

kevin9408

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