Garden irrigation system

[Bongtrees]

I have large gardens with lots of large palms, ornamental trees and shrubs and huge pots. I need to instal an unobtrusive irrigation system and would be grateful for advice.

I do have several points for water and lots of black ground cover with gravel and stones

Mike

[Solysombra]

Bongtrees, interesting question, it so happens that I built my own (in England) but the principle is the same.
I bought 120 metres of medium gauge 15mm black plastic tubing, it comes in 40 metre rolls, I then tapped holes at 2 metre intervals and fitted small spray nozzles and laid the pipe just under the topsoil and two lengths under the lawn, you can connect up the system using bronze or plastic joints then connect it to a supply pump via a small flexible hose, my sytem cost me about £120 2 years ago and it works fine, only problem is I havent yet found a decent timing device so I have to operate it manually, works though and it's not unsightly, you can hardly see it.
If you have time on your hands and an adventurous streak try it it's not at all difficult

[Grouser]

You could follow Solysombre's advice but use drip feeds to let the water out, then it can run continually during dry weather so you don't need a timer. This method is used to irrigate orchards and works well. If your water pressure is good you won't need a pump.

[mark]

Bongtrees, these systems are really easy to install, common sense really. The tubing is really cheap as is the small guage tubing for branchlines. I would recommend drip feeds and these can come in 4lts/min or 8lts/min. I woud also recommend a timer which again are cheap enough, around 60e for a half decent one. All these items can be bought from your local ferriteria at a fraction of the price of L Merlin. The reason I'd choose a timer is that water should be put on during the dark hours when it is cool and the water less likely to evaporate, also if you go away for any length of time the timer will obviously continue to run.

regards

Mark

[jane grant]

Rather than the ferreteria, I would go the the place your local farmers, gardeners etc use - usually called something starting with the prefix 'Agrico......' pipe cost us about 40centimos a metre and there was a great choice of sprays, drip feeds etc to go with it again costing cents. We re-did our system this year, and laid about 100m of pipe, spray attachments every couple of meteres and added a tap to one lenght all for about 60€. The same place is also good for any chemicals, fertilizers, plants and seeds you need, and are good at identifying 'strange' insects taken in in jam jars!!!

[El Cid]

A lot depends on the length of the pipe runs.

If you have long runs then you need good pressure otherwise the water won't make it to the end of the pipe, or if it does, the amount coming out of the last point will be less than the first. There is a surprising drop in pressure along a long pipe with many irrigation points. Pipe thickness also has a big effect - the thicker the better.

We have a fairly large system which I installed. It covers about 2500m2 with probably about 600 irrigation points - I've lost count! It has 6 separate pipe runs all controlled by electric valves controlled by a digital timer. They switch on sequentially and can each be for a different period. It was about €200 including the valves - cheaper that 6 individual battery timers.

There areabout 200m of 32mm piping laid under terraces to the various planted areas. It then is reduced to 20mm for the main pipes. Irrigation points are either fitted directly into this pipe or at the end of lengths of 4mm pipe connected into the main pipes. There is about 400m of 20mm pipe and another 200m of the small tube. The longest run is about 120m The actual irrigation points are adjustable from a drip to a spray. This is important as different plants/trees all have different requirements. Also any type of point will get cal in it eventually and with the adjustable type you can just turn it up a bit.

Our water supply is from a 200000 litre deposito so we have to use a pressure pump both for the house supply and for the irrigation. The irrigation pump is 1.5kw and the system runs at 6 bar which drops in use on the longest runs to 4 bar. This pushes out about 3000 litres an hour so the entire plot can be irrigated in between 20 minutes to an hour depending on the weather. The high pressure ensures an even flow at any point in the system. It is also needed for the pop-up lawn sprinklers.

I have also installed a "fertigation" unit which sucks liquid fertiliser into the system when required. This saves a huge amount of time and the whole plot can be fertilised in 15 minutes.

As Jane says, get the gear from an agricultural supplier as the prices in the DIY shops and viveros are way overpriced.

Sid

[campo babe]

Can anyone tell me where there is an agricultural supplier between Malage and Nerja please.

We are considering installing an irrigation system - we have been told that Cano's is cheaper than the local viveros but they are more a builders' merchant.