Riego Continuado

In Irrigatie irritatie // Irrigation irritation you can read how an irrigation network with thin-ish tubes was laid out, dug in, eaten by Papaya, and not that big a big success.  Mainly because the pressure of the water is not that high, being gravity-fed from our balsa that is max. 2 meters higher than the ground level in the orchard. Each tree had a small tap, the blue ones in the picture, but even if you would open them very slightly the pressure dropped too much, and water yield per tree varied too much with the filling level of the balsa.

Watering by hand, and a small amount more, is a lot of work, takes a lot of time, and seems to be simply not sufficient, in summer. All in all the new growth in our orchard is a bit disappointing.

New plan! Make a ring around each tree, and make tine holes with a pin, so water just slowly drips, and pressure is not lost.

16 mm tube, stoppers, T joins, taps, 25 mm to 16mm conversion thing.

That is a roll of 100 m tube 16mm diameter, costing €17. Can I have two rolls please? Oh, make it three. 

A circle around each tree of about 1 meter diameter takes 3 meters tube, we have about 50 trees, so you can calculate how much... I did not realise in the shop, so I had to go back.  I have now used up 5 rolls. 

The circle around the tree is closed off with a stopper.  Three pin-pricks to make holes for water to drip, and continously. No pumps, no valves or timers.

The bougainvilles all get one pinprick of water, the ones outside the fence with a little tube. The ones inside the gate directly from the tube.

So, inside the fence, and outside the fence all trees now have a circular tube, all happily dripping. So far it seems to work!

If more water is needed I'll append an extra bit of tube at each tree, with a small valve, so I can switch part of the capacity off, per tree, in winter. 

I may dig the tubes in. Or I might not.