The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[nomaad]

all those "spacings" you mention are between emitters on the tube, yeah? what was the spacing between individual lines of hose in your trenches?

 

[Tom Hill]

I was picturing Nomaad servicing too many plants from a single 1/2'' line, it was that I was concerned about. Nothing wrong with omitting 1/4'' tubing at all though. But if that is a "T-tape" type product, mark me down for a pass. If I can't wet out a perfect doughnut I'm looking at the hose too often. -T

 

[ROOTWISE]

x2 on the emitter hose here, but I have it very easy with quality h20 and consistent pressure. Looking good everybody....

btw tom- consistent is spelled with an "e" big boy.

 

[nomaad]

As always, I really appreciate all the support, guys.

 

[humboldtlocal]

all those "spacings" you mention are between emitters on the tube, yeah? what was the spacing between individual lines of hose in your trenches?

Yes that is on the tubing. Individual line spacing is around 8".

I was picturing Nomaad servicing many plants from a single 1/2'' line, it was that I was concerned about. Nothing wrong with omitting 1/4'' tubing at all though. But if that is a "T-tape" type product, mark me down for a pass. If I can't wet out a perfect doughnut I'm looking at the hose too often. -T

I hate t-tape. Struggled with that one as well. This is the stuff I like.
http://www.dripworksusa.com/store/emitubing.php
It is 1/2" poly it just has emitters built into the line. I use a timer with four valves so I can break each garden up into four zones. My trench garden will actually have two of those timers and eight valves so each trench will have its own valve.

 

[Tom Hill]

Here's what happens with it, picture this. Drops do their thing, then spread out as they soak in a cone shape widening as h2o sinks in. The good news is that drippers are very forgiving, as roots will inhabit the in between zones of perfect moisture and thrive there, trained to it -dieing-off in both the soaked and dry areas, but thriving in this small percentage of the soil that maintains perfect moisture. It doesn't take full advantage of the upper zone of soil, the most productive zone, this zone/surface should be thoroughly wet-out ime. This is why many hate emitters, it's difficult to accomplish what is possible with a hose, but this should be our goal imo. -T

 

[humboldtlocal]

Makes sense. These seam to wet the top surface pretty good if I space them close enough. They make a wet spot about 8-10" in diameter around each emitter. Is it as thorough as hand watering? Definitely not. There are some dry spots. We do a little hand watering a few times a month to make sure all of the soil is getting some moisture. For the first month it is mostly all hand watering.

 

[ROOTWISE]

Yep, me too H-Local. However, I am very lucky to have only 12 plants to baby and can "touch-up" by hand as I go. You folks with much larger projects must have the ability to "set and forget" at some point. Guess this thread has finally reached it's irrigation 101 section.

Lots of knowledge here, thanks for giving us the place to bounce ideas Tom....

Feeling good about all my friends here!

 

[Tom Hill]

Thank you brother RootWise And speaking of consistent, there is no touch-up, there is no reviving roots on our whims when we get around to the hose etc, etc. The only thing our plants care about is where we are consistently consistent. Roots, ime, are like old dogs, rather resistant to new tricks and victims of their previous training.

I knew a guy who gave each plant one .5 gallon per hour emitter. Turned it on at the beginning of the season and left it on 24/7 until harvest. This worked well. It was consistent, that was the key, roots were perfectly trained -dieing off there and thriving over there. But he still wasn't taking advantage of optimum oxygen/temp potential over the entire surface imo.

 

[Bumble Buddy]

I ran ~70' of the 1/4" in-line emitter line for some landscaping, 50psi with pressure regulator more than enough pressure. Replaced a bunch of emitter head spaghetti, the inline stuff is way easier to run and seems much more reliable, easy to get good coverage. Made a circular manifold with 1/2" line to equalize the pressure and ran the equal length emitter lines from that, t-ed to concentric loops around each plant, used a twist valve on one shorter line to balance pressure.

 

[Tom Hill]

We should, imo, be able to slide away some straw and be looking at surface roots covering the entire surface of the soil. If we can do that, then we are using the best part of our soil to full advantage and watering technique is on point.

 

[localhero]

I really like humbolts spiral feed method, that was what i was going to go with. its the same way i feed air bubbles to my tea. connect a feed line to a t connector and loop around with holes on the bottom of the loop. and Tom is right the downsprayers im using even with 2 dont hit the entire pot evenly.

I found pressure regulating drip emmiters at my local irrigation store, i can tell you way way better than the bulshit home depot drippers. they wont emit unless theres a certain amount of pressure in the line. my crappy hd drippers will feed the closest plants more than the farthest. i use that to re-use my recaptured airconditioning condensate to feed the barrier plants. also supposedely that copper condensate water is good to ward off mold.

the reason i went with sprayers is that i can water exact amounts and feed in the watering. i just figured drippers would eventually clog if i tried to feed through them.

 

[planty]

No, the sprayers don't REALLY throw a perfect circle. 4 of them do a pretty good job though....

I have a back up plan of adding in 2 180* sprayers in case it isn't perfect.

My set up is heavily pressurized. My pump flows 80 gpm @ 60 psi, I need 55 GPM @ 25 psi..

 

[planty]

We should, imo, be able to slide away some straw and be looking at surface roots covering the entire surface of the soil. If we can do that, then we are using the best part of our soil to full advantage and watering technique is on point.

This is another one of the reasons why I am covering everything with straw..to coax the roots to grow to the verry tippy tip top of the soil.

 

[ROOTWISE]

Thank you brother RootWise And speaking of consistent, there is no touch-up, there is no reviving roots on our whims when we get around to the hose etc, etc. The only thing our plants care about is where we are consistently consistent. Roots, ime, are like old dogs, rather resistant to new tricks and victims of their previous training./QUOTE]

Well put and understood, thanks T.....

 

[ROOTWISE]

oops, dbl post sorry

 

[Sir Schranzalot]

Hey guys, although I am a newbie to the subject of growing I have been reading this thread from the begining and I have a question yet again

On the last few pages someone said something about a garden with 60 300gal. smarties or something about system with 120 300gal. pots. I´m wondering what a garden like that would yield if one of you would have one as large as that. And what kind of acerage would one need?

/sorry if my english is hard to read, but I´m not a native speaker

 

[nomaad]

15 foot spacing on 300 gallon pots, minimum. 27,000 square feet, or around 2500 sq meters for 120x300 gallon pots. So a bit more than a half acre. That would be one seriously intensive half acre of ganja farming.

A pro grower with a dialed in system could yield half a ton or more. Damn. Let me know if you want me to come over and set that up for you.

 

[planty]

Here is my space with 60 300s with 15 ft center spacing(9 ft walkways), it took just under a half acre. Got up on the roof to take this pic a while back after we got done filling em up.

It would take me a 100' wide 320' long space to do 120 pots.

I was just talkin about the water system being able to do up to 12 zones with 10 sites per zone

Next years system will have 3 more zones added to it. I have the space. I'm just attached to these huge pines on my property a bit, but I feel like falling them and milling them on site for more fencing and expanding the garden next year will probably be what I end up doing...or something. Off 90 300s I'd hope to get at least 650.

I know my 6' diameter pots look teeny compared to toms 8'...Next years additions will be 10' diameter...!!

 

[localhero]

yeah and youd need a crane to harvest, a twister to trim, crop duster for foliar and a bb gun.