wrote in message
.. .
Toby wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
I'm thinking of fitting semi-permanent pipework in our greenhouses
(and maybe some other places) with a time switched pump to provide
irrigation. The pump will use rainwater collected from the roof in a
tank which will be topped up by mains water with a simple ball valve
controlling that. (it may need to be slightly clever so that the
mains only gets turned on when the tank is, say, only a quarter full).

Very easy with a ball-cock, with the arm bent down at a suitable level, but
make sure the outlet is always above the water line.

An additional reason for using a pump is that our mains water pressure
is very high and tends to destroy things which then gets expensive in
lost water. A system as above will at least limit the rate of loss
considerably.

So, in the greehouses I was thinking of running plastic around the
edges and having some sort of small bore feeds to individual plants,
pots, etc. Can anyone suggest a practical way to connect small bore
feeds to plastic pipe? I know there are systems sold for doing this
but my experience with them has been that they're not very robust or
long lasting.

--
Chris Green


I would think you would be far better off using proper irrigation stuff,
rather than speedfit...
http://www.easy-irrigation.co.uk/mic...g-c-21_55.html

13mm pipe for your main supply round the greenhouse
http://www.easy-irrigation.co.uk/con...347-p-274.html

That's considerably more expensive than 20mm MDPE pipe which is about
a thousand times more rubust.

....but I expect you will then need special connectors to bring it down to a
reasonable sized pipe to deliver the water won't you, rather than just
screwing dripper heads into the pipe?

Then Some of these screwed directly into this supply pipe
http://www.easy-irrigation.co.uk/end...ack-p-280.html

Then from these drip heads, some smaller pipe to each plant
http://www.easy-irrigation.co.uk/sup...348-p-315.html

I have *lots* of this already from previous failures.

What were the previous failures?

Or, if you have a bed full of plants, then you run a 13mm pupe down the
middle, and then screw somthing like this directly in
http://www.easy-irrigation.co.uk/gar...320-p-282.html

When I installed a system in my back garden, i used Gardena stuff
everywhere, the only other thing I used for the pipes were 25mm MDPE pipe
under the grass as my main supply, I installed a 12v valve at each lawn
sprinkler, or lower bed, so i can control each area of the lawn and each
bed. It's all fed from 8000L of rainwater storage :-)

My experience of Gardena (and other) irrigation systems aimed at the
'domestic' market is that they disintegrate or stop working by some
means or other within 12 months or so.
The drip heads in particular either stop dripping altogether or stick
open with too much flow. The chances of getting consistent watering
over a number of heads closely approaches zero. Supplying a "Cleaning
Needle" (as in the second link above) is almost an admission of
defeat. They don't seriously expect the user to crawl around under
the tomato plants poking at the drip feed do they?

I have had mine in for several years, and as I have kept the supply water
clean, I have not had blockages.

So if you keep the supply water clean, then there won't be anything to block
the drippers will there.

Toby...