Sprinkler pumps? shallow (30') well pumps for irrigation? got one!!!

Judith Browning wrote:...My use this morning was 100 gallons so it could be I brought the water table down low enough it will take awhile to replenish the well.

I may have missed it but is this a pretty deep drought year or about normal for rainfall?  Wondering if that could be impacting the rate of replenishment of that well......

John,  according to the drought map for this state we are on the border of 'abnormally dry' and 'moderate drought'.
Our normal rainfall is 50" a year and I hear we are 25"short.

I won't be surprised if this well slows ...I was able to pump another 20 gallons after a four hour rest....will see what it's like in the morning.

I found that the problem yesterday, when I thought I had drawn down the ground water too much was really I had just lost the prime....not by much, less than a quart.
So today I've drawn 140 gallons in 20 gallon increments so far, early morning on garden beds and this afternoon into black lidded feed tubs.
I got 25 gallons once but lost the prime again so am being more careful and stopping early.

I have a couple more feed tubs to fill.....might have to look around for some more containers and see if I can make it to 200 gallons.

For us this is huge amount of garden water.

EDIT:  I ran 200 gallons of well water total today!
The downside, of course is that it is in 20-25 gallon increments waiting 45 minutes to an hour between runs.
Most importantly though, it shows that the well is replenishing....just not as fast as this pump can pump.

As far as I know there is no one on this end of town who is using a drilled well so it could be there are no other demands on the ground water.

we've fallen into a routine with the well water....I water with the hose starting at dawn, one bed really well in three, 5 minutes sessions on the hour for 60 gallons total.
Then we fill barrels and tubs over the day hourly.
Those are used to bucket out to individual plantings around the yard as needed.

This way we are able to move close to 200 gallons of water daily which is way more than I expected from this well.

...and I've ordered the on/off switch😊

"I'm still not clear from this pump or my other gas-powere model if there is any harm done to the impeller or seals if it's trying to pump against a closed hose...."

I have overheated the water in my centrifugal fire pump almost to the point of boiling by running it against closed valve. It is a Honda, so very well built, but I was assuming trashed seals when went truck to shut it off, figured out what I had done. However, no problems.
I was 200ft away doing mop up on a forest fire, trying to conserve the 275 gallon tote on my truck, firehose closed 'for just a minute' and not fully paying attention. Next morning I added a 3/4 garden hose fitting to both allow me to use a much smaller, lighter, lower flowing canvas hose instead of the big 1.5in and a T to allow constant cooling recycle of pressurized pump water to the tank even when all hoses are closed.
Cavitation in a closed pump will wear an impeller, believe it or not, very, very slowly, but still. Centrifugal pumps rely on inertia to move water, why they are not self priming. Also the reason a person never wants to 'deadhead' or close in a running pump. All that moving mass needs to instantly stop. Stop pump, then close valve. Open a valve then close a valve for branched system.

We use a well pump in the lake to fill two, linked, 275gal totes for all of our domestic and garden water. Move water via buckets. To pressurize a garden hose around the yard, I have a solar microgrid with a nice little 12V RV pump. I have an additional steel tank I link to the others to make a greenhouse drip system for when we leave.
Gravity does not seem to be enough pressure to run drip emitters, but I just use old vinyl garden hose I pierce with push pins for a constant tiny drip. If I over do it, patch with tape and re-pierce until I get the flow I want. I decided eventually that was the best setup anyhow. Make the hole in the hose too big, then make a smaller hole in the tape because some hoses are soft enough that the hole 'heals' itself. Sounds dorky, but two greenhouses will drain 600gal of water in less than a week.
Automated shutoff or automated fill is the next project.