Drip irrigation using well water

I am using my 15 gpm well for my drip irrigation (1/2" emitter tubing-not tape). My water has a lot of iron in it so I inject air to oxidize it and cause it to precipitate out. I am currently sending this water through a 1" Pentex Big Blue cartridge filter using 50 micron cartridges so as to not clog my emitters. I cannot find the average size of these iron precipitates. The filter cartridges are about $16 each and last for about 1 1/2 weeks. Expensive over the course of my 8 watering period. Does anyone drip irrigate using well water? What do you filter with? One alternative is an irrigation filter using, cleanable, reuseable stainless steel screens. Will at 200 mesh (75 micron) stainless steel filter screen filter these particles out? Please do not respond with suggestions about gravity and solar and pigs. If have info that can help, please share it. Thanks.
Thom Foote
Footehills Farm
Colbert, WA

Do you have a spin down filter or settling tank in the system? They use centrifugal force or gravity to settle it out.

could you use the "flag" type emitters and unscrew them for cleanout?

Thom we also have a lot of iron in our water and we irrigate with drip tape ("T-Tape"). We use the mesh cleanable filter that you mention and have never had any trouble with clogged emitters. In fact, we have used the same filter and screen for nearly 20 years now! I do think we need to replace it soon as it has started to require more frequent cleanings this year... For the first 10 years or so we had a fairly large market garden and ran the system pretty much 24x7 during the hottest parts of the summer (our well is very strong at over 45 GPM). We usually can only get 2 seasons out of the drip tape so I am not sure if the clogging would be a problem over longer timeframes with the tubing.

David, thanks very much for your input. It is EXACTLY the concise feedback I was looking for. Good to know about having to replace the T-tape. Fortunately the 1/2" drip tubing is inexpensive and I can use any WWOOFers who are with me at the time to help replace it when I need to. You have saved me a lot of time and further expense. This is a perfect example of the benefits of community. Thanks again. If you are ever near Spokane, drop by our farm for good beer, good food, good conversation. Enjoy.

We use drip tape and have high iron content in our well water.  We use the mesh filters which require infrequent cleaning when we use well water but needed frequent cleaning when we used water from a nearby creek as fine sand would get sucked into the line even when the intake hose was suspended a foot above the bottom.   Some of our drip tape is in its 5th year.  Some tape continues to works well but in the 5 th season some tape emitters seem to be plugged.  The emitters have a ring of rust stain around them.   I am wondering if anyone tries to clean the tapes.  I do take the end caps off periodically and typically heavily rust stained water runs our for a minute or two and then clears.   I have been contemplating running a dilute vinegar solution into the tapes and let it soak a bit but this seems a bit impractical and it seems one would need to lay the tape with the emitters down - we mostly have the tape laid with the emitters up. We also have plastic or mesh mulch laid over the tape - makes it almost impossible to turn the tape emitter down unless the mulch is removed.  A stronger acid such as muriatic highly diluted might be another option- I have also considered using creek water again rather than well water but the well is so convenient eliminating  the need to constantly check the pumps and clean the mesh filters.   We use the 15 mm thickness tape.  I don’t want the world to be filled with more discarded drip tape and also it is expensive to keep replacing 8000 feet of drip tape not discounting the labor to install.   Most of our tape is used on honey berries/ haskap and about a tenth is used on raspberries- a small fraction is used in our greenhouse- these never seem to slow down but are only 60 feet long whereas some of the tapes on honey berries are 300 to 400 feet long- we use 15 psi pressure regulators.

David, that's a difficult situation. It seems to me that an acid flush-and-hold may have merit, but I can't claim expertise in this area.

I do recall (vaguely) that high iron in wells can be the result of deep bacterial activity, and that various treatments (shock chlorination, but also ongoing hydrogen peroxide injection) can make a difference at the source. Again, I'm not an expert. But perhaps it's worth looking into.

Luck!