Your fruit trees, perennial vegetables, herbs and other garden plants need adequate water to produce food. We try to give the best care we can to plants that provide food to us. Not just because they need it, but because the fruit just grows and tastes better. Care for your plants and they will care for you. To provide for this, we install micro-irrigation systems designed to conserve water. Using timers, polyethylene tubing, misters and drippers, water is put directly where it is needed at the right time. For the best in water conservation, link a well or city supplied irrigation system to rainwater collection tanks. This allows you to use rainwater when it is available and simply convert back to the well or city lines when the tank is empty.
Water is becoming more and more of a precious resource, but sometimes irrigation is a necessity with our busy schedules and seemingly more and more complicated lives. But there are many ways we can limit the amount of water we waste. Here are some ideas, starting with off the grid systems.
Collecting rainwater can be one of the most effective ways to save on water costs. In the most extreme of situations you can run a solar pump (DC pump) off a battery, charged by a panel, drawing water from a large tank, that has been collecting rain from your roof. Most of the smaller and affordable solar pumps put out enough flow to run 25, 7-10 gallon/hour, emitters for 45min.
Our most stable systems have been tied to city water and rainwater collection systems with a sump-pump installed in the tanks. This allows you to switch between the systems (automatically or manually) when your tanks run dry. The amount of water you can collect has rarely been the limitation. Normally, it's the amount of storage that clients want to pay for.
For more on Rainwater Collection.
Micro-irrigation:
We have tried a number of emitters with our micro-irrigation systems and have found only a few techniques to really work well. To start, how much you want to run your irrigation depends on you, and that's what determines how much water you use. What these systems do is maximize efficiency by watering only the area that needs to be watered.
Let's say for example your neighbor has a 100 squ. ft. area she wants to plant. There are 2 Avocado's that have a root zone 2' in diameter and will be planted 30' apart, knowing that they need plenty of room to grow. In 5 years their root zone will be much larger. She has 50 mixed understory edible and native plants, all of which will need water to establish themselves, but only the edibles and a few ornamentals will continue to need water over the years. We'll say each of these plants has a root zone 6" in diameter. We'll over estimate and say there's 33 squ. ft. of root zone that needs to be watered. The other 67 squ. ft. is mulch. We'll use 2 rotors @ a minimum of 1.2 gal./min.. Because the plants are spread out, to allow for room to grow, she'll have to water the entire area. We'll say you water three times a week for one hour. That's 432 gal./week.
Then you decide you like her plant choices and want the exact planting as hers, but you want to use drip emitters. The drip emitters we mostly use now range from 1-10 gal./hour and as you adjust the flow, the coverage area gets larger or smaller. We'll say we need an emitter for every understory plant and 4 for each Avocado. That's 58 emitters @10 gal./hour. That's 580 gallons per hour! That's ridiculous! Just kidding. Here's the problem.
The Rotor zone is using 432 gal./week to cover 100 squ. ft. That's only 143 gal/week going to what your neighbor planted. The drip zone is using 1740 gal./week watering just that 33 squ. ft. That means that if the rotor zone was to provide 1740 gal./week to the root zone/s that actually needed it, your neighbor would actually be using approximately 5257 gal./week. Maybe I'm pointing out the obvious, but I think you just turned your irrigation run time back and not only did you save water, but you saved electricity. Oh yeah, and after a year you turned off 25 emitters going to your native plants. You just saved a lot of water, weeding and money.
Conventional Systems:
Sometimes it's not practical to replace an entire existing system, but there are small things that can be done.
* Adjust sprinkler heads so they aren't watering sidewalks and roads.
* Have your irrigation specialist install a rain sensor.
* Eliminate inefficient zones or replace them.
An Irrigation inspection and consultation -
Have one of our irrigation specialists come out to your property and advise you on ways you can save water. We'll give you an estimate on an installation cost. Or you can save by doing it yourself with some guidance from one of our specialists. We'll deliver all the parts and guide you through the process step by step.
- $50/hour for the first hour. The first hours consultation fee is reimbursed with an installation of $300 or more.
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