Matthew Williams

thank you for the article, i have read a few articles that were quite similar to this one, but they still leave me wondering if there is any plumbing that will not leach harmful chemicals into the irrigation water. of course there is the option of copper but at 1000ft its just not in my budget, im wondering if iron or steel pipe of any kind would be better, i would rather have extra iron in my water than hormone disruptors, i want to build this system with a higher standard than what is common right now, we know plastic is causing many problems to our health and the world, so eliminating it from the irrigation water is my overall goal, i know we cant escape toxins entirely, but i is my goal to eliminate bringing them into my system.

I know nothing about root cellars, but i do agree with the others around here, if you want to keep food over winter, you can simply leave them in the ground, root vegetables do fine in the ground, and to my surprise last year i began my over winter garden, and there is so much that will grow outdoors all winter long in north texas, you will loose your summer crops but your fall planting of root vegetables brassicas and leafy greens will do just fine all winter long, even uncovered, if your wanting a crop that will provide calories similar to potatoes you can grow all the sunchoke/jerusalem artichoke you want here, heck just stir up the ground enough and it will grow on its own, they produce several pounds of tubers per plant, and you can simply leave them in the ground all winter and harvest as necessary, they like poor soil and tolerate drought well, and like carrots they also get sweeter with the cold, the starches convert to sugar the colder they get. There are endless possibilities once you work out your water source, once you have water you will be good to grow.

Im stuck in the beginning phase of a 7 acre food forest design. Im located in north texas and the design im look at will be a keyline design. the external water supply will come from a meter on the highest point on the property, i want to design the swales to flow water from rain and or from flooding from the water meter, but i also want to run a pipe from the top of the property at the meter to a pond 1000ft away on the lowest point of the property, the pipe will serve two purposes, i will have supply water from the meter to the greenhouse next to the pond, and i will use the pipe to pump water from the pond up to the top of the property to flood the swales when the pond is full. My main concern is i do not want to use pvc, and possibly any plastic in the system at all if possible, i want to prevent any leaching of harmful chemicals into the water im using to irrigate with. What are my options for materials for plumbing that are the least toxic, and wont break the bank entirely. any advice is appreciated.