Bucket Irrigation Project

Here's a pic of a mini irrigation project I'm doing.

The objective is to be able to transform any bucket into a water tank that continuously spits out water. At least until the water is gone.

The good thing about this is I can move the bucket/tube anywhere I want and filling it up will be easy.

My plumbing skills are Zero, so you can laugh at the pipe monster I've created.

The pen is where the bucket will go.

As the bucket will probably be around 50 gallons, the plastic tubing is small, so I can build up pressure. I still have to buy the little dripper attachments.

So far this project is costing 17 euros. Yikes. Pipe monster be damned!

This is just one facet of my overall water management plan which includes swales, h-culture, and shading. It's for the summer months when, like now, there's just no damn rain, soil is cracking, and plants are not growing, or bolting to seed...

William

I'm using a smaller scale, economy version - a 5 litre water bottle (you can dumpster-dive for these) with the top cut off and a hole or two bodged through the bottom with a screwdriver, refilled every few days from a watering can.

William,

You really don't need all those fancy plumbing attachments.
You can make a compression fitting by simply drilling a 3/16" hole into your 50 gallon bucket and sticking a
1/4" drip line into it.

I've done this many times, never leaked.


From an old post elsewhere:

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0602015726891.html

Posted by emgardener (My Page) on
Sat, Mar 14, 09 at 17:01

Just checked this link again.

See this picture

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa59/emgardener/Containergarden012.jpg

To connect the 1/4" inch tubing to the 55 gallon container, I simply drilled a hole (forgot what size, but less then 1/4"), then took a big spike nail and rotated it in the hole. This made the hole taper in (?), then cut the 1/4" tubing at an angle and forced it in. Works great, no leaking and very simple. Definitely recommend practicing on some other plastic containers first though before drilling the 55 gallon one.

I wanted something with a faucet, hence all the plumbing fixtures to get the right 3/4 inch. So I could turn it on or off. For instance, if it's raining into the bucket I'd probably turn off the faucet.

W

Update.

Eric: Thanks for the links, but it looks like those are for bucket planting. I'm irrigating beds.
Burra: Thanks for the idea, I'll do that, but it looks like that works for single plants. I'm irrigating many plants with this set up. And I want to limit trips to the water source.

Here's the photo of the small test bucket irrigating a plant with 1 drip nozzle. I have since put 5 more and they seem to all be dripping with gravity. The flow rate seems to be about 7-8 hours for 1 bucket of water. Need a bigger bucket. The nozzles are also expensive! 7 euros for 10 nozzles.

best,
William

I have a 55 gallon barrel with a spigot attched, which sets on a trailer behind my tractor..and 20 feet of garden hose that flows into a PVC wand about eight feet long...I can roll up next to a bed, and spot water every plant in it in just a few minutes...for the places I cannot get a hose to...

Couple of things..five gallon buckets hung on posts connected to drip lines and fed down a row works well..and for portable drip...a gallon jug with a screw top and a nail hole in the side at top..fill it, set it next to the plant with the hole down..slow water and a good recycle...

I'd like to report that this experiment failed miserably.

-water spouts clogged often.
-pressure was low (thought it would be higher)
-water capacity was very low. it was gone in 4 hours.

The experiment with a much larger barrel and a drip hose worked much better.

William