Hydroponics
I was talking to a good friend recently and he was very interested in something called Hydroponics. This is the process of using water to feed plants without placing them in the ground. After speaking with him I have been interested in this and I was thinking of ways to make the system out of PVC pipe and the use of an electricity free pump to supply the water.
Here is a little 3D picture that I was playing with for a design concept. Let me know what you think. I dont know anything about hydroponics other than its cool. I cant wait to get started with this but it might be a little while.
I am thinking about using a ram pump or some other type of pump to get the water to the tank. I am just brain storming at the moment and things might and will change in the future.
I have a similar irrigation plan that i have been thinking of after watching your ram pump videos.. my only concern is enough water pressure.. let me lay down the idea step by step, you will have to use your imagination to put it together.
steps:
1) Install home made ram pump **used fire extinguisher for pressure tank, and bigger drive pipe to supply more water** in river below my garden.
2) place barrels with custom (pipe head attachments at the bottom) at the top of the hill.
3) extend drip lines with “watering Misting irrigation System 30nozzle mist sprinkler” inserted into the drip holes to give a mist spray of water (found on ebay)
4)run the drip lines down the hill back to the source through the garden
now the water coming out from the barrels with the use of gravity flow should run the drip lines..but my concern is will it have enough pressure to operate the mist sprinklers I want to place in the holes.
NOTE: Im trying to develop an Irrigation system to supply water to 3 acres of garden.
And thank you for the videos, ram pump is the best solution to getting water out of the river up to my tanks without me being there and sweating like a donkey.
This sounds like a fun project. First I would have to ask you how much feet of head you have in the river?
Sometimes you can run the drip lines right from the ram pump delivery. On one of my ram pump tests I was able to get 15psi at my garden spot with about 5 feet of head. I dont have any experience with spray nozzles like you are talking about. The number you can multiply by to get the psi of your tank pressure is .433 x foot. So if you have a tank 10 feet tall you will have 10x.433=4.33psi.
Do make sure that your drive pipe is the same size as your check valves in the pump.
I am happy you have enjoyed the videos!
Hi Seth,
I was thinking the same and browsing the internet without luck so far. Have you built yours?
I have not built mine yet. I am still getting setup on the land so it might be a while.