Tired of watering with a hose or watering can? Watering an orchard or a garden is extremely simple if you know where to start, how to distribute the sectors, how many valves to use, what type of timer. sprinklers? drop? Rain bird? Let’s start.
Contents
Basic materials for sprinkler and drip irrigation
- Programmer with at least 3 or 4 connections to the solenoid valve.
- 1/2 inch pipe for dispensing
- T-shaped connections
- 90º elbow connections
- Blind plugs to close the distribution manwar
- solenoid valves
- Chest (optional)
- Diffusers, sprinklers, etc. for sprinkler irrigation (usually lawn)
- 16mm drip irrigation hose (with built-in drippers or without drippers)
- Drippers to pierce the pipe in case you choose the one that doesn’t have them built in
- Exuding irrigation pipe as the third option compared to the other two.
- Elbows and “T” for drip irrigation pipe.
All of these agricultural irrigation products can be found in physical stores and of course in online stores such as Plantawa, where the one that is only available in irrigation equipment has over 1000 items for sale in stock today today. Let’s see what considerations we need to calibrate before jumping in to ride. our irrigation system.
Manifold pressure is critical
We are not going to go into courses on hydraulics, Bernoulli’s theorem, head losses and other calculations that are done in professional irrigation. But we must take into account where our water supply comes from and if the pressure is sufficient if it is mainly diffusers for the irrigation of the garden. Drip irrigation generally requires less pressure.
Sometimes the pressure of the water intake is not enough to be able to lift the nozzle of the irrigation diffusers if too much is applied. The house may be high up and the height difference between the house and the tank may not be too great to give good pressure.
Remember that the water pressure depends on the height difference. This is called potential energy. The greater the difference in elevation between the reservoir and your home, the greater the water pressure will be. Logically, when the difference is large, pressure reducing valves are installed to prevent the water distribution systems from deteriorating due to excessive pressure.
If the pressure is not sufficient, it will be necessary to sectorise.
Knowing if the pressure is not enough is often a matter of trial and error. It’s the mother of science and it takes a lot of time, but in non-professional applications it often prevails and it takes time and money, but it also hones your ingenuity and makes you an expert on the problem specific to solve. You observe and act on your intuition or ask those who know and believe they can help you.
Sectoring allows the water flow to be divided into fewer distributors and to obtain better irrigation results per sector.
Choose the sprinkler diffuser for low pressures
In the market we have many irrigation diffusers for the garden. We have them for a wide variety of pressures and flow rates with smaller or larger nozzles and with a larger throw radius (this is usually directly related to the pressure they withstand).
The fact is that if you have problems with pressure, the logic is to use diffusers with narrow nozzles with working pressures between 1 and 3 bars, which are usually the minimum they can have.
If you still can’t get enough pressure to get the sprinkler nozzle to lift, you only have a “home fix” that a waiter once had to do because there was no other choice. . Here we are already entering the manipulation of the diffuser so the guarantee is invalidated. Please note this. They are not expensive so it is worth trying. The most drastic solution is to shorten the inner spring of the nozzle or replace it with a spring with less force and finally remove it completely. The consequence of the latter is that once the water pushes the nozzle and irrigates, when the solenoid valve closes, the diffuser nozzle will stay up and not go down. You’ll either have to leave it as it is if you don’t mind, or turn it down by hand.
If you have drip and sectorized irrigation. The needs are not the same.
Many times, in addition to grass (watering), we want an orchard to grow our own vegetables. In these cases, the irrigation system must also be divided into sectors to achieve different programs, irrigation times and irrigation start times. A lawn does not have the same water needs as an orchard and, moreover, the water distribution systems have nothing to do with it. Watering can be harmful for certain plants in the garden (fungal diseases, magnifying effect of the sun on the leaves, etc.)
In general, drip irrigation requires considerably less pressure to operate than sprinkler irrigation, so the limiting factor will be the sprinkler in terms of pressure, it will always be the lawn irrigation diffusers.