Orchard irrigation questions.

[Mallow]

Anyone have experience with orchard irrigation systems? In the spring next year I will have around 100 fruit trees (Mostly apple but other fruit trees also) showing up and now I am in the planning stages of making an irrigation system for the trees. I currently have a year around spring that is fed into around a 500g trough at the lower end of my property. I dont really have an issue getting the water up to the trees with a solar pump system but I know they require deep soaking watering. Anyone have any recommendations or experience in this department? Any helpful hints/suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks
Mallow

[sebastes]

drip irrigation would be your best bet and the emmitters come in a variety of discharges from 1 gal per hour to 16 gal per hour. You would also use some standard 1/2 inch irrigation pipe to plumb the orchard and that is what you insert the emitters into.

Nearly all orchards and grape vineyards around here use drip irrigation to water their crops. When you turn on the system within 10 minutes all the plants in the orchard are getting a drink!

[Mallow]

Thanks I will look into that. I had it narrowed down to drip or pop up sprinklers but want to do it correctly thats for sure.

[tyusclan]

We've had our orchard on drip for several years now. It is the way to go for orchard irrigation.

Lowe's has everything you need to get it set up. It's really not that expensive either.

[Mallow]

Do you generally put the drip spouts near the tree trunk or a couple in a circle around them?

[Michael Kawalek]

Hi Mallow

I have about a 100 trees in the ground now, and I've had lots of problems trying to water them. When I first planted them four years ago I put in a drip system with automatic timers to water them when I wasn't around. The ground squirrels in my area thought it was great idea and chewed holes in the pipe so water would drain down their holes. I lost thousands of gallons of water from my holding tank before I knew there was a problem. They chewed holes big enough to insert a finger into the pipe. I've used traps, poison, and have shot them on sight, but haven't put a dent in the squirrel population.

After that, I shut down the system and watered the trees by hand, one by one, with 5 gallon buckets for 1 and half seasons. Using two buckets that I alternated I could water the whole orchard in about 45 minutes.

I finally laid a system with hard PVC pipe with bubble heads to flood irrigate each individual tree swale. I tried the automatic timers again, but our well water is silty and the bubble heads clog easily.Some trees would flood while others were bone dry. Even in-line filters quickly failed because of the silt load. I finally tore out the timers and put in hand operated valves that I open and close myself. My holding tank is about 200 vertical feet above the trees which should give me about 80psi. I found that I could only water about 20 or so trees with that amount of pressure and get flow out of the bubble heads. I now have 5 valves to water my 100 trees, about 10 minutes per valve. I walk around to each tree during watering to make sure that the bubbler isn't clogged and water is coming out. I also have to quickly plug any squirrel holes in the tree swales to prevent all the water from draining away.

If you don't have any rodent problems in your area, then I think the drip system would be great. Be prepared though to monitor it very carefully to check problems before they become a disaster. If I had, I wouldn't have lost 6 months supply of water.
Michael

[sebastes]

around here the farmers suspend the 1/2 inch irrigation pipe about 18 inches above the ground. This way the workers can easily see which emitters are working and which need attention as well as helping a bit with the omnipresent ground squirrels. With the pipe suspended a bit they can also quickly spot any leaks that need attention.

Typically I see 2 emitters per tree in the orchards but I don't know what gallon per hour emmitters they are using. I use the 1 gal per hour drip emitters to water 50 tomato plants and 75 pepper plants and use drip tape to water the raised beds.

[Windy in Kansas]

Let me preface by saying that I don't have an orchard so of course no drip for one.

When I attended the California Farm Equipment show I saw examples of drip in orchards. A loop of poly pipe was made around the trees and as the tree grew more drip emitters were punched into the pipe to provide more water.

I also saw straight runs of pipe into which a tee fitting had been added to feed an incomplete loop around each tree. The theory would be that there would be less friction loss in the piping, easier to make straight runs and then cut in fittings, etc.

[Mallow]

Thanks for all the input. I currently have a few groundhogs but those are eliminated as soon as I can catch them out in the field. I was thinking about one vale per row of trees and water them each manually due to it would require alot of gpm to try to water all at the same time. I have seen the loop version done around the tree a couple times and it seemed to work fairly well also. The issue I see with drip emitters that if you water in one location wouldnt it cause the roots not to spread nearly as much? Wouldn't it be better to try to have the roots grow outwards? We don't really have any real orchards in this area that does irrigation so just trying to get all my ducks in a row to make my life easier than hauling water in 5g buckets.

[ronbre]

i use drips here..so far no squirrels

[sebastes]

the water from an emitter spreads out in a fairly large cone shape underground. With sufficient number of emitters you shouldn't have a problem since there are an awful lot of producing orchards that use this technology. I think the goal is more to get the roots to grow down not out this way they (the roots) seek out areas that are more consistent in water content than surface soils.

[Mallow]

I am on a sloping fairly steep hillside with rows going across fairly level. Would I be ok with one drip emitter on the upper side a bit away from the tree or would 2 still be better?

[Ed Norman]

We ran the lines between the rows, then went over to each tree with a smaller rubber line with a bubbler on the end. There is enough slack in each to reach past the tree, so it can be moved every month or two if wanted, to get the far side of the tree.

If rodents are a problem, use bigger diameter poly pipe that their teeth can't get a bite on. I think for voles and mice it is 1.5" minumum.

Our farm store ran out of the smaller line and we switched to 3/4" poly pipe for the windrow trees. The punch tool worked fine in it and the bubblers pushed in good. It carries more water and is tougher and almost the same price. Now I wish we had used it in the orchard, too.

[sebastes]

Originally Posted by Mallow

I am on a sloping fairly steep hillside with rows going across fairly level. Would I be ok with one drip emitter on the upper side a bit away from the tree or would 2 still be better?

the number of emitters would depend on the size of the tree and for steep hillsides they do make pressure-compensating emitters so the ones at the bottom of the hill deliver the same as the ones at the top of the hill. We have these in use on our property in the mountains where our mini-orchard is also on a hillside and they work quite well.

[sebastes]

one other thing that is available for use with emitters is 1/4 inch mini soaker hose. Most emitters accomadate a quarter inch distribution tube to carry the water from the emitter to the plant, or area near the plant that you want to water. They make a quarter inch soaker hose that fits on the emitters and delivers water along the entire length of the mini-soaker hose. This mini-soaker hose requires a larger emitter and I've seen them work with the 4-16 gallon per hour emitters.

[Mallow]

Originally Posted by sebastes

one other thing that is available for use with emitters is 1/4 inch mini soaker hose. Most emitters accomadate a quarter inch distribution tube to carry the water from the emitter to the plant, or area near the plant that you want to water. They make a quarter inch soaker hose that fits on the emitters and delivers water along the entire length of the mini-soaker hose. This mini-soaker hose requires a larger emitter and I've seen them work with the 4-16 gallon per hour emitters.

Ok I see the pressure compensating ones now that would work great for me and less valves needed for me to deal with. Most of the emitters you just pop a hole in the feeder pipe and insert it appears. If my pipe is buried how do I bring the emitter up to ground level or am I missing something?

[sebastes]

I bury the PVC supply lines to the gardens and orchard but attach the 1/2 inch irrigation pipe (the pipe the emitters pop into) to a hose bib and run it on the surface of the ground. Alternately you could put a tee at each place there is a tee and run a short vertical of the 1/2 inch irrigation pipe to extend above the ground so you can attach and service the emitters as needed.

[Mallow]

I was looking at doing the T and come up out of the ground. Is there any half inch emitters that dont have to be put into the side of the pipe? If not I would have to put a cap on each vertical and then punch a hole in the side of the pipe for the emitter.

[sebastes]

Originally Posted by Mallow

I was looking at doing the T and come up out of the ground. Is there any half inch emitters that dont have to be put into the side of the pipe? If not I would have to put a cap on each vertical and then punch a hole in the side of the pipe for the emitter.

the half-inch poly irrigation pipe that you plug the emitters into is fairly thin-walled and all you do is bend the end over and use a piece of wire, tape, string, or nylock to keep it in place. The emitters are pretty small and a 16D nail makes a great punch for making the initial hole in the poly pipe before you stick the emitter into it. If I recall correctly the psi rating for the poly pipe is 90 pounds.

There are also two types of fittings for connecting the pipe and they are compression type and stab type. The compression type are near impossible to get back apart and I prefer the stab fittings although sometimes on hot days you need to wire the pipe to the fitting for a bullet-proof system as far as potential blowouts go.

Around here the half-inch poly irrigation pipe (brand we use is blue stripe)runs about $20-25 per 500 foot roll. I can't recall the price of the 1/4 inch distribution tubing that attaches to the emitter.

[sebastes]

here is one link to the emitters I've used for 20 years. They are the E-2 type emitters and you can take them apart to clean them which many other emitters don't offer that option.

This site is a bit pricey but I may be getting a better break at the local irrigation supply house.

http://www.sprinkler.com/go-toro_emitters-0-0.html