Forum home› Problem solving
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

Do it yourself irrigation system

LewisiumLewisium Posts: 122
in Problem solving
I've just built my 10x10 polytunnel and was wondering if it's possible to rig up a home made irrigation system for it? There's no electric running to the Allotment so my choices I guess, are very limited. Any ideas?
«1

Posts

  • DogmumDogmum Posts: 96
    Could you do anything with gravity? I’m not sure it would work but if you could elevate a water butt could you then run some sort of hose from it that would slowly release the water?
    Tomorrow is another day
  • Jenny_AsterJenny_Aster Posts: 945
    Have you searched on youtube?

    https://youtu.be/TueZ18zvjUs
    Trying to be the person my dog thinks I am! 

    Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Dogmum is part of the way there, I think.  Depending on what you're intending to grow, it might be an idea to bury wads of newspaper in the soil, deeper than you'll need to go when planting.  If possible, insert pieces of plastic pipe vertically so that, before you leave your allotment, you can drench the newspaper via the pipes and leave a sort of reservoir of water to capillarise up to the surface while you're away and water the plants.  This 'technology' is regularly used to hold moisture below runner beans, a crop that has to have water to thrive.  A lot of 'ifs' but......
  • SuesynSuesyn Posts: 664
    We have 2 raised up 1000 litre containers which we use with battery operated timers to water our polytunnel. It works by gravity, there is a very slight slope and the tanks are only about 15/20 cms above the ground. My OH bought a solar powered pump but found it didn't really work so it's languishing in the shed unused.
    The tanks are filled with rainwater (there's none on site) so if we have a dry spell he has to transport water from home. 
  • LewisiumLewisium Posts: 122
    My Allotment is pretty level so can't use gravity as such. Some sort of sprinkler system rigged up with water drawn from my water butt is what I'd like but don't know how to go about it with no electricity involved..
  • Butterfly66Butterfly66 Posts: 970
    I can’t help re technical solutions but just wanted to say that sprinklers are a very inefficient way to water as you lose a lot through evaporation in the air and where it lands on the leaves. A drip system which releases the water at the base of the plant would be better. 
     If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero
    East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
  • NollieNollie Posts: 7,529
    I had a similar system to Suesyn at my last allotment, raised water buts, timers, short length of ordinary hose for the drop, connector to seeper hose laid out flat on level beds. No electricity. No water either, had to pump from the nearby river to fill the butts. A sprinkler, apart from being wasteful, would make it far too humid inside a polytunnel for a lot of things but it depends what you plan on growing. You really don’t need much height for it to work by way of gravity, although mine were set a bit higher than Suesyns, at 50cm - the water butt stand set on concrete blocks.

    Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
  • LoxleyLoxley Posts: 5,698
    Elevate the water butt, and control the release to a drip or 'leaky hose' irrigation system via a battery powered timer?
    "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour". 
  • UffUff Posts: 3,199
    Lewisium said:
    My Allotment is pretty level so can't use gravity as such. Some sort of sprinkler system rigged up with water drawn from my water butt is what I'd like but don't know how to go about it with no electricity involved..
    A water butt would only need to be about a foot above ground level and then, say, a hose pipe coming from it with holes and small tubing at intervals corresponding to where the plants are to give a drip feed. 
    SW SCOTLAND but born in Derbyshire
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    I haven't tried this solar powered system but it does tick a few of your boxes - https://irrigatia.com/irrigation-kits You would need to think about how to prevent it being stolen, our allotmenteers on here have had some bad experiences with theft.


Sign In or Register to comment.