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).

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

On Aug 9, 7:34*pm, wrote:
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).

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.

In a greenhouse it makes a lot more sense to put large trays on the
staging, add sand and water those. Or ISTR synthetic felt mats used
for the same purpose.


NT

NT wrote:
On Aug 9, 7:34Â*pm, wrote:
I'm thinking of fitting semi-permanent pipework in our greenhouses
(and maybe some other places) with a time switched pump to provide
irrigation. Â*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. Â*(it may need to be slightly clever so that the
mains only gets turned on when the tank is, say, only a quarter full).

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. Â*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. Â*Can anyone suggest a practical way to connect small bore
feeds to plastic pipe? Â*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.

In a greenhouse it makes a lot more sense to put large trays on the
staging, add sand and water those. Or ISTR synthetic felt mats used
for the same purpose.

OK, that is effectively what we do in one greenhouse, I suppose it
wouldn't be too difficult to autmate the level of the water in the 'tray'.

However it won't work for tomatoes in gro-bags will it? (This isn't a
*big* growing installation, just domestic)

--
Chris Green

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).

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

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

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 :-)

Easy irrigation were just the first Google result for the items I wanted to
show you, so hunt around for the best deal, I bought all my bits from a
company called Grovelands, but I cant seem to see them anymore.

Toby...

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).

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.

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.


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?


Easy irrigation were just the first Google result for the items I wanted to
show you, so hunt around for the best deal, I bought all my bits from a
company called Grovelands, but I cant seem to see them anymore.

Toby...


--
Chris Green

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...

Toby wrote:
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?

Mostly failed 'drippers' going to either "little fountain" or "nothing
at all". An additional problem was that none of the pressure reducers
supplied with the systems lasted very long and our mains water
pressure is very high.


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.

How did 'you' keep it clean, it's surely up to the water company! :-)


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

Except that one needs to re-route and re-arrange feeds at times and
then it's almost inevitable that some dirt gets into the system.

--
Chris Green

wrote in message
.. .
Toby wrote:
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?

Mostly failed 'drippers' going to either "little fountain" or "nothing
at all". An additional problem was that none of the pressure reducers
supplied with the systems lasted very long and our mains water
pressure is very high.


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.

How did 'you' keep it clean, it's surely up to the water company! :-)

Most of my water is from the gutters, this feeds directly into a small water
butt via a course mesh pond planting basket like this
http://www.pets-warehouse.com/pic-a/ACL77051.jpg
This removes the moss and leaves, and leaves the water clean enough for the
first pump (Just a cheap "dirty water" pump, that is about 0.5 bar)
I have to clean the basket out 3-4 times a year, and clean this barrel out
once a year.

This then feeds into one of the two 1500L barrels (Call it barrel 1), via a
material bag sort of thing (A bit like a sock with drawstrings on the top -
when we bought some bathroom taps, they came in these little bags!)

This barrel is then connected to another barrel the same size and shape
(call that barrel 2), just up from the bottom, and also to two IBC 1000L
tanks via a one way valve (so water can flow into the 1500L barrel, but not
out into the IBC's as they are shorter than the barrels)) most of the dirt
that manages to get past that seems to settle at the bottom of Barrel 1 (I
cleaned it out only a few months ago, and there was very little in there
after over 2 years)

Then the overflow from the first barrel goes to the IBC's so they only fill
when the 1500L barrels are full (but then empty when the level in the barrel
drops to the height of the water in the IBC's.

The other three IBC's are at the top of the garden, fed from the garage
roof, again via a smaller barrel with a basket strainer, but I have raised
the barrel up to the height of the IBC's, so no pumps up there. These are
manually emptied onto the lower ones at the moment, until I get another
irrigation pump for them, or run another pipe down the garden.

The 2nd 1500L barrel contains the main irrigation pump (about 4 bar I
think), there is a pressure vessel, a flow switch and a pressure switch so
the system is pressurised, but then turns off when the flow switch is
satisfied (meaning the pump is unable to pump any more water into the
system) The pump will then turn on again only after you have drawn some
water (about 10 liters) via the sprinklers, the standard taps on the system
or the auto fill on the water feature - The pressure switch then switches
the pump on thus triggering the flow switch which will keep the pump on
until both it and the pressure switch are satisfied or the low level sensor
in barrel 2 has triggered.
(There is also a one way valve just after the pump, so the water does not
just woosh back into the barrel when the pump turns off!)

There is then yet another filter in the outflow with a really fine mesh,
this gets cleaned once per year, and does not seem to get all that dirty.
(It is sort of like this, but it was made by Gardena, but they don't seem to
sell them anymore
http://www.catfishing.info/mod/Outdo...nk/filter2.jpg)

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

Except that one needs to re-route and re-arrange feeds at times and
then it's almost inevitable that some dirt gets into the system.

This is true, but I cant see any way to stop this happening with any system
you are having to take apart and reconfigure, when there is dirt involved!

Toby...

On 9 Aug, 19:34, wrote:
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).

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

http://www.autopot.co.uk/products.php?pid=aquabox

The water inlet in the aquavalve is very fine so some prefiltering
required for rainwater, aquavalve is quite an interesting idea in
itself , demand led but allows complete drying out before refresh,
think principle similar to toilet cistern, gravity fed, no power
required.

Adam

AA wrote:
On 9 Aug, 19:34, wrote:
I'm thinking of fitting semi-permanent pipework in our greenhouses
(and maybe some other places) with a time switched pump to provide
irrigation. Â*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. Â*(it may need to be slightly clever so that the
mains only gets turned on when the tank is, say, only a quarter full).

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. Â*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. Â*Can anyone suggest a practical way to connect small bore
feeds to plastic pipe? Â*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

http://www.autopot.co.uk/products.php?pid=aquabox

The water inlet in the aquavalve is very fine so some prefiltering
required for rainwater, aquavalve is quite an interesting idea in
itself , demand led but allows complete drying out before refresh,
think principle similar to toilet cistern, gravity fed, no power
required.

That looks interesting, but quite expensive if the prices of their
other products are anything to go by. I'll keep watching the site
though.

Thanks.

--
Chris Green

"Huge" wrote in message
...
On 2009-08-10, Toby wrote:

This removes the moss and leaves, and leaves the water clean enough for
the
first pump (Just a cheap "dirty water" pump, that is about 0.5 bar)
This then feeds into one of the two 1500L
This barrel is then connected to another barrel the same size and shape
(call that barrel 2), just up from the bottom, and also to two IBC 1000L
tanks
Then the overflow from the first barrel goes to the IBC's so they only
fill
when the 1500L barrels are full (but then empty when the level in the
barrel
drops to the height of the water in the IBC's.
The other three IBC's
The 2nd 1500L barrel contains the main irrigation pump

So it's *your* fault it's been slashing down with rain for weeks on end.

Yea, sorry about that!