Drip irrigation/soak hose/Sprinklers

[Oilystairs]

Hey all,

We are trying to work out the best system for irrigating our quite large veg plot in SW France. We have the legal right to pump up to 40 cubic metres of water a day from a mill leat that crosses our land so no shortage of water (although i don't want to waste the stuff for nothing of course) and a warm sunny climate. The veg patch is around 60m x 40m so each run of drip hose would be 40m long.

We have pretty much worked out that sprinkler irrigation is bad for promoting various plant diseases and also wastes loads of water in evaporation but is it realistic to drip water on a large plot? It looks costly on first investigation on the net. Also does anyone have preferences for drip irrigation vs soaking hose type?

Ideally i would like to solar pump into a holding tank raised on a platform to create an gravity pressure of 1 bar to run drip/soaked hose irrigation. Is this realistic?

Thanks for any advice

[Davie Crockett]

Personally, (I'm in no way an expert) but I favour occasional soaking/drying out because as you say, disease and rot are encouraged by continual damp conditions.

It may be more beneficial to bury your drip system so that the top 4-5 inches of soil can limit evaporation of excess moisture. The drawback would be that you wouldn't be able to see where the water is going/not going.

[oldfella]

I have just finished installing a drip system, which I been working on throughout the winter.
I have found that the website" Irrigationtutorials.com" a good source of information, which even I found understandable. Each garden, has unique features, eg Direction and angle of Slopes, Water source, and other factors, that is as well to take into consideration before diving straight in. You are probably doing all this, but as in most things, the more YOU know the less it costs. Says He speaking from experience.

By the way how did your tick repel-ant work out as now is the tick season, and I see Frontline has gone up in Price,

Eddy

[The Riff-Raff Element]

I use soaker hose on a plot of about 1000 m2. The initial investment was quite steep, but the results are good. For soaker hose you need about 2 bar pressure / head for it to work properly, so you'd need to lift your holding tank quite a way. Drip hose works effectively at lower heads, but it is more expensive. We have a down-hole pump for our system.