Hello everyone,
We moved into our new house last summer (oh God, that already sounds so long ago). Since then, there has been a lot to do—and there still is. Now, however, the remaining work is increasingly shifting outdoors.
The well has already been drilled. At that spot, I installed a small pit, and the garden shed will be placed on top of it. Now I’ve been thinking about the irrigation system again and realized that it will be difficult to access the pit underground once the garden shed is in place, as I would then be undermining the base slab.
So, I’ve been giving it some thought and reading a lot, but not everything is clear to me yet.
Firstly: before I pour the base slab, I need to run the necessary pipes out of the pit. That means drilling a hole through the pit ring and laying 1 to x PVC pipes (KG pipes) extending 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6.5 feet) beyond the edge of the base slab, so that I can later feed the water line through them when the time comes.
By the way, the garden shed will also house the sub-distribution for the outdoor electrical system. So, I also need to run a cable from the pit through the base slab to the distribution board in the garden shed for the pump. Additionally, I need 2 to 3 PVC pipes from inside where the distribution board is mounted, under the base slab to the outside, for all the electrical wiring on the driveway—such as the gate, lighting, and control cables for the irrigation valves, etc.
Now to the main topic: the automatic irrigation system
In this forum, it seems @rick2018 has good knowledge about this subject. Maybe you could give me some tips as well.
Below is a plan of our property:
Except for the house, none of this has actually been implemented yet. The plants are just planned and may still change. The second terrace on the drawing is currently 10 x 10 meters (33 x 33 feet). It won’t actually be that large; that’s just a placeholder for the approximate future location. However, it definitely won’t be built in the next five years. That brings me to my first point:
1. How do you take that into account now? For example, regarding the second terrace, I would mostly plan the sprinklers as if the terrace will never be built, since it’s still uncertain whether and where exactly it will be placed. What about the trees? If I install the sprinklers now and then plant a tree 1 or 2 meters (3 to 6.5 feet) away next year, there will be shade along the axis behind the tree. In the first few years, this is probably negligible due to the small trunk diameter, but what happens when the trunk gets thicker?
2. What exactly should be irrigated? Lawn, flower beds, and vegetable garden are clear. I’ve read differing opinions about hedges, especially regarding adaptation to watering. What about trees? They should be able to cope on their own, right? Is it really overkill to install irrigation just for the first and maybe the second year?
3. For my large lawn areas, I’m considering Hunter gear-driven rotors. However, these are said to be rather sensitive to wind. Here, it’s usually windy because we’re on a small hill. But once everything around is planted, there shouldn’t be much wind close to the ground, right? @rick2018, why do you prefer rotators like the MP3000 over gear-driven rotors like the I20, for example?
4. My father-in-law took care of the well. I believe a Grundfos SQ2-55 pump is installed “in the hole.” The borehole depth was about 20 meters (66 feet) and the pump hangs at roughly 15 meters (49 feet) depth. The property slopes upwards by almost one meter (3 feet) to the right, so the pump has to push water up about 16 meters (52 feet). The pump is capable of 54 meters (177 feet) total head. So that leaves about 38 meters (125 feet), which corresponds to roughly 3.8 bar (55 psi) and, unfortunately, only about 2 cubic meters per hour (around 880 gallons per hour).
If I understand correctly, I can only operate two gear-driven I20 rotors with the 4.0 nozzle on one zone, since each requires 0.81 m³/h (about 360 gallons/hr) at 2.5 bar (36 psi) with a 11.9-meter (39 feet) radius (planning uses 10.5 meters). That will mean a lot of zones. Alternatively, I could try to return the pump to the well driller (as it wasn’t used before) and get one with 4 m³/h (about 1760 gallons/hr) or more. The question is whether that would make my well wear out faster (clogging?).
5. Let’s say I keep the existing pump and end up with 30 zones. How would that work in practice? Would each lawn irrigation zone run for 30 minutes? And every 3 days? That would cause problems with my planned robotic mower that will almost always be running over the large area. In the end, I won’t have time to enjoy the yard because either the mower is running or the sprinklers are on.
6. It is recommended to start the design in a corner of the property. So, for example, I start at the top right and place the first sprinkler in front of the hedge. The thing is: the hedge is currently very narrow, but will become 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6.5 feet) wide over time.
7. The sprinklers extend during operation and retract afterwards. How durable are these if someone steps on them? It looks like I will eventually have a “carpet” of pop-up sprinklers. The children should, of course, still be able to play freely.
That’s enough for now. Have a nice rest of the Sunday!
We moved into our new house last summer (oh God, that already sounds so long ago). Since then, there has been a lot to do—and there still is. Now, however, the remaining work is increasingly shifting outdoors.
The well has already been drilled. At that spot, I installed a small pit, and the garden shed will be placed on top of it. Now I’ve been thinking about the irrigation system again and realized that it will be difficult to access the pit underground once the garden shed is in place, as I would then be undermining the base slab.
So, I’ve been giving it some thought and reading a lot, but not everything is clear to me yet.
Firstly: before I pour the base slab, I need to run the necessary pipes out of the pit. That means drilling a hole through the pit ring and laying 1 to x PVC pipes (KG pipes) extending 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6.5 feet) beyond the edge of the base slab, so that I can later feed the water line through them when the time comes.
By the way, the garden shed will also house the sub-distribution for the outdoor electrical system. So, I also need to run a cable from the pit through the base slab to the distribution board in the garden shed for the pump. Additionally, I need 2 to 3 PVC pipes from inside where the distribution board is mounted, under the base slab to the outside, for all the electrical wiring on the driveway—such as the gate, lighting, and control cables for the irrigation valves, etc.
Now to the main topic: the automatic irrigation system
In this forum, it seems @rick2018 has good knowledge about this subject. Maybe you could give me some tips as well.
Below is a plan of our property:
Except for the house, none of this has actually been implemented yet. The plants are just planned and may still change. The second terrace on the drawing is currently 10 x 10 meters (33 x 33 feet). It won’t actually be that large; that’s just a placeholder for the approximate future location. However, it definitely won’t be built in the next five years. That brings me to my first point:
1. How do you take that into account now? For example, regarding the second terrace, I would mostly plan the sprinklers as if the terrace will never be built, since it’s still uncertain whether and where exactly it will be placed. What about the trees? If I install the sprinklers now and then plant a tree 1 or 2 meters (3 to 6.5 feet) away next year, there will be shade along the axis behind the tree. In the first few years, this is probably negligible due to the small trunk diameter, but what happens when the trunk gets thicker?
2. What exactly should be irrigated? Lawn, flower beds, and vegetable garden are clear. I’ve read differing opinions about hedges, especially regarding adaptation to watering. What about trees? They should be able to cope on their own, right? Is it really overkill to install irrigation just for the first and maybe the second year?
3. For my large lawn areas, I’m considering Hunter gear-driven rotors. However, these are said to be rather sensitive to wind. Here, it’s usually windy because we’re on a small hill. But once everything around is planted, there shouldn’t be much wind close to the ground, right? @rick2018, why do you prefer rotators like the MP3000 over gear-driven rotors like the I20, for example?
4. My father-in-law took care of the well. I believe a Grundfos SQ2-55 pump is installed “in the hole.” The borehole depth was about 20 meters (66 feet) and the pump hangs at roughly 15 meters (49 feet) depth. The property slopes upwards by almost one meter (3 feet) to the right, so the pump has to push water up about 16 meters (52 feet). The pump is capable of 54 meters (177 feet) total head. So that leaves about 38 meters (125 feet), which corresponds to roughly 3.8 bar (55 psi) and, unfortunately, only about 2 cubic meters per hour (around 880 gallons per hour).
If I understand correctly, I can only operate two gear-driven I20 rotors with the 4.0 nozzle on one zone, since each requires 0.81 m³/h (about 360 gallons/hr) at 2.5 bar (36 psi) with a 11.9-meter (39 feet) radius (planning uses 10.5 meters). That will mean a lot of zones. Alternatively, I could try to return the pump to the well driller (as it wasn’t used before) and get one with 4 m³/h (about 1760 gallons/hr) or more. The question is whether that would make my well wear out faster (clogging?).
5. Let’s say I keep the existing pump and end up with 30 zones. How would that work in practice? Would each lawn irrigation zone run for 30 minutes? And every 3 days? That would cause problems with my planned robotic mower that will almost always be running over the large area. In the end, I won’t have time to enjoy the yard because either the mower is running or the sprinklers are on.
6. It is recommended to start the design in a corner of the property. So, for example, I start at the top right and place the first sprinkler in front of the hedge. The thing is: the hedge is currently very narrow, but will become 1 to 2 meters (3 to 6.5 feet) wide over time.
7. The sprinklers extend during operation and retract afterwards. How durable are these if someone steps on them? It looks like I will eventually have a “carpet” of pop-up sprinklers. The children should, of course, still be able to play freely.
That’s enough for now. Have a nice rest of the Sunday!
I’m still not finished. I have completed 8 out of 15 zones and still have some digging left to do. The day before yesterday, I finally sowed a few square meters of lawn. You need to see some progress at least.
I had tested everything before, but only briefly, not for 20 minutes straight. Now it has unfortunately become clear that something is wrong.
At first, everything runs well, but after a few minutes, the flow obviously decreases until eventually the sprinklers retract.
On one zone, I have 4 sprinklers with a total flow of about 1.7 m³/h (about 45 gallons per minute). After 2 to 3 minutes, you can see the spray radius shrinking, which then gradually decreases until after about 8 minutes the sprinklers start retracting.
Earlier, the well specialist came to take a look at the situation. (Since I was at work, only my wife was there.)
According to him, the pump he provided for his drilled well supplies enough water (around 2 m³/h (about 53 gallons per minute)).
However, I have a filter directly behind the pump in the main water line, which he briefly removed and shook; after that, everything ran perfectly again.
He suggested that the filter is probably becoming clogged due to the high iron content or something similar.
According to him, this filter is unnecessary anyway, as the water is sufficiently filtered by the filter gravel at the well’s end.
Question 1: Is this correct? Is the simple filtration by the filter gravel (I believe it’s about 4 meters (13 feet)) sufficient?
Question 2: Could this explain the drop in flow? In other words, is it possible that the filter clogs during operation when the pump runs continuously for 15 minutes?
I would have expected that clogging requires resting phases without water flow.
PS: It is a disk filter: Irritec disk filter 1" male thread on both sides with integrated flush valve, max flow rate 5 m³/h (about 132 gallons per minute), 120 mesh, pressure rating PN10.
I had tested everything before, but only briefly, not for 20 minutes straight. Now it has unfortunately become clear that something is wrong.
At first, everything runs well, but after a few minutes, the flow obviously decreases until eventually the sprinklers retract.
On one zone, I have 4 sprinklers with a total flow of about 1.7 m³/h (about 45 gallons per minute). After 2 to 3 minutes, you can see the spray radius shrinking, which then gradually decreases until after about 8 minutes the sprinklers start retracting.
Earlier, the well specialist came to take a look at the situation. (Since I was at work, only my wife was there.)
According to him, the pump he provided for his drilled well supplies enough water (around 2 m³/h (about 53 gallons per minute)).
However, I have a filter directly behind the pump in the main water line, which he briefly removed and shook; after that, everything ran perfectly again.
He suggested that the filter is probably becoming clogged due to the high iron content or something similar.
According to him, this filter is unnecessary anyway, as the water is sufficiently filtered by the filter gravel at the well’s end.
Question 1: Is this correct? Is the simple filtration by the filter gravel (I believe it’s about 4 meters (13 feet)) sufficient?
Question 2: Could this explain the drop in flow? In other words, is it possible that the filter clogs during operation when the pump runs continuously for 15 minutes?
I would have expected that clogging requires resting phases without water flow.
PS: It is a disk filter: Irritec disk filter 1" male thread on both sides with integrated flush valve, max flow rate 5 m³/h (about 132 gallons per minute), 120 mesh, pressure rating PN10.
T
T_im_Norden28 May 2020 12:30Iron or manganese?
Manganese deposits everywhere and can seriously clog pipes.
Manganese deposits everywhere and can seriously clog pipes.
Well, taking it off quickly sounds easy. But then I’m missing 15cm (6 inches) of pipe. I’ll have to see how I can manage that.
Iron or manganese? No idea. The water smelled bad at first, I think. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.
I’m thinking iron because I have two sprinklers in one zone very deep—deeper than the valve box—and there is some water leaking there when the zone is turned off. That whole sprinkler is now discolored reddish-brown. I hope the nozzles can handle that.
PS: When the well was drilled last year, it also smelled briefly in the beginning but not anymore. The water hardly contained any iron either. After that, I had to shorten the pump pipe by one meter (3 feet) because a vault was installed around it, and now the whole thing is under the garden shed. So I shortened both the pump pipe and the PE pipe to which the pump is attached. If I didn’t shorten both equally and the pump is now hanging 50cm (20 inches) deeper or higher than before, can that cause such effects?
Iron or manganese? No idea. The water smelled bad at first, I think. I’ll have to keep an eye on it.
I’m thinking iron because I have two sprinklers in one zone very deep—deeper than the valve box—and there is some water leaking there when the zone is turned off. That whole sprinkler is now discolored reddish-brown. I hope the nozzles can handle that.
PS: When the well was drilled last year, it also smelled briefly in the beginning but not anymore. The water hardly contained any iron either. After that, I had to shorten the pump pipe by one meter (3 feet) because a vault was installed around it, and now the whole thing is under the garden shed. So I shortened both the pump pipe and the PE pipe to which the pump is attached. If I didn’t shorten both equally and the pump is now hanging 50cm (20 inches) deeper or higher than before, can that cause such effects?
T
T_im_Norden28 May 2020 12:59Mangan deposits form a red/brown to black crust. This becomes very hard and solid, which can clog nozzles and valves.
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