The One Thing I Could NOT Figure Out

[@virtualfather4117]

If I remember correctly there is a water storage type place farther up the hill, it’s where the water that fills your current reservoir. If you put a tee before your reservoir you may have enough pressure? A strap wrench would work good to tighten your fittings. If you have a meter long piece of pipe the size that will go in to the other side of the tap. Screw it in several turns does not need to be tight just in then use strap wrench to tight (no Moro needed)🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪 the up the top of your property is a relatively good idea, you will need to paint the the ICBs black and maybe even cover with a tarp so the algae won’t grow inside tanks, which could clog drip. You guys are doing great. To have the understanding about the quality of life you want at such a young age is great. If you keep going like you have been in 10 years you will have an incredible low maintenance life to live. Things to keep in mind when designing “what future maintenance will be required “ and “will this be easy to do when your 60” have a joy filled holidays 😊😊😊😊😊

[@rickallman1318]

Your little doggies are so precious! Particularly the one sitting in your lap! It looks like He's thinking, "Who in the heck are you talking to?, you're by yourself!" Lol❤

[@teresaedwards3659]

You are ingenious! Your hard work will pay off and you're already making progress. Plus you will be able to help others on their path to sustainability. Feliz Navida to you and Mauro.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Feliz Navidad to you too 😊

[@jamesmattoon9479]

I saw a very productive flood irrigated allotment in Andalucia and there, the width of the beds was just a single row of crop width of maybe 40 to 50cm and i was told to ONLY walk in the water channels, so as to not compact the soil in the beds ! You get muddy feet BUT the strawberries from it were the sweetest i've ever tasted, maybe because of the cool root run !? J

[@rumblef1sh]

You might have paid more locally, but not only are you buying quality but you're supporting businesses in the local community, which I think is SO important for a more sustainable future :)

[@djazt.8053]

I think you might like to also experiment with wicking bed irrigation (Aussie invention, 20% more water efficient than even drip irrigation, and very simple to control the water amount as the plants take what they need). There are buried / underground variants of wicking bed irrigation as well, so it could work even for the whole veggie bed. But best to start with some small experiments like you always do!

[@pedroramossuarez3937]

Soy de gran Canaria aqui tenemos cultura de riego por goteo por la escases de agua, compra goteros de baja presión que son de kilo y medio y dan 6 litros de agua a la hora, yo tenía un problema de presión y puse una placa solar y una electrobomba, y arreglado, también compré una motobomba pequeña por si falla el sol, saludos desde gran canaria

[@kitty-yu4xe]

Das ist ein gutes ausgeklügeltes altes Bewässerungssystem !!

[@monicacruz4407]

So many comments and suggestions, don’t feel I can add anything useful, but I do feel your instincts to keep things low tech are right, I have an allotment a bit further south from you, and so many people have problems with calcium build up, bursting junctions etc. I even think drip irrigation very close to plants encourages shallow rooting, not good on an exposed site, and also may encourage fungal problems, especially with tomatoes. I was picturing a herby/ flowery triangle for that left over bit to attract pollinators for your veg? All the best 👌👍🙏🌱🌱🌱

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Yes, that's another thing I hear a lot from people here about drip irrigation, constant cleaning of the emitters with vinegar solution to dissolve the salt build-up. Great idea about planting some flowers/herbs etc in the triangle :)

[@danbolin1470]

Harriet, have you looked into venting the system for better flow ? Air can get trapped in the lines restricting flow.

[@danbolin1470]

Have you looked into adding vents to your system for better flow?

[@trishwalton6628]

Harriet, don't despair! I, too, have a difficult time with tightened plumbing parts. It's so frustrating. I liked the hammer approach, so smart 👍keep up the great work! Hope your flood irrigation is a success! Take care

[@ginacrusco234]

Harriet, you are a water goddess. I never before realized the degree to which farming is all about moving water to where you need it.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

hahah yes, I'm also realising that!

[@FrankDohrin]

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences with us again, Harriet and Mauro! For us thinking about how to arrange our own system on the finca, it's of great value to learn from your projects. Thanks again!

[@margaritamanresacapo2540]

Ánimo, pronto llegará la primavera, el tiempo pasa muy rápido y encontrarás lo que sea más conveniente para el riego . Gracias por compartir .

[@davidj1684]

You have done remarkably well! It took me much longer to figure out our irrigation systems, which, yes, are MUCH easier to install with two people!

[@PatrickPoet]

I so admire your resilience

[@arasolisfolkcelta8929]

Great work, congratulations! 9:35 let me tell you a tip for making this work easier: after drilling the hole pour some hot water over the hole, then the double union enters far easily!

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thanks, good tip! We had left the pipe in the sun for about 4 hours before attempting to drill it - on advice from neighbours. I think that helped too!

[@Jana-wz7dr]

What a great can-do attitude.

[@anthonystevens749]

Great project, Harriet! As someone who's battled with MDPE sorts of pipe for years let me pass on a simple tip: buy a purpose-made ratchet pipe cutter. In the UK I think they cost under 15 euro, and the ease with which you can make quick, consistent, clean, square cuts to slip into the joints is one of those "right tool" liberation moments - no more hacking with saws and knives! I love watching your progress on the holding - have a wonderful festive time as the solstice marks the turn of the seasons, and look forward to a new growing year. 😎

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

thank you - appreciate the tip - I always think "ahhh I'll only be doing this once or twice".. but no, in this case, I think it's really worth it!

[@geoffcapper5025]

We started out using 20 litre vegetable oil tins with a tiny hole in them as drip irrigation for fruit trees, one per tree. That was pretty painful 😅 Others have mentioned low pressure drippers, I'll add another vote for them. The simplest low-pressure dripper is a small hole at intervals in your low density pipe, but you can get both pipe with inline drippers and plug-in drippers that will work. The filtration is going to be your main issue, but not insurmountable. You can even get by without it, but then you need to do more flushing. There's a document from the Uni of Kentucky in the US called "Off the Grid: Ultra-low Pressure Drip Irrigation and Rainwater Catchment" that offers some good info. Good luck with the project!

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thanks Geoff - love hearing what other people are doing, thanks for sharing. The barrels for fruit trees sound interesting, like the "olla" technique that others have mentioned but cheaper to source the oil tins, I imagine. Will check out the doc you recommend too!

[@Aphidman1]

In case it's of value: when we moved to our current 3 acre "farm", the land was in cattle pasture, and was "marked" for furrow irrigation (a.k.a. flood irrigation) on about 32 inch (~81 cm) spacing (furrow irrigation is the norm in our area, due partly to high electricity prices). I tried using those furrows for my first year of a large vegetable garden in 2022. I concluded that, in this fine silt loam soil, 32 inches is too wide for a veg garden. In 2023 I'm going to ~21 inch (~53 cm) spacing. You'll have to see whether lateral water movement is adequate on 70 cm spacing. Good luck!

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thanks Andy - that's interesting!

[@bobbalbirnie2478]

Harriet, I think what you and Mauro have done is completely appropriate for utilizing the water resources you have in place already, it is simple and will effectively get the water where you need it on the garden terrace. One thing I might have done differently is to take advantage of the present water canal and place the main distribution piping in the canal with taps off at the various existing outlets with a shutoff and a length of pipe that can be directed into a few of your planned flood garden ditches. That would lessen the number of shutoffs (saving resources) required to accomplish your watering needs. One thing your system can do in future as you become wealthier is to put electrically controlled (and electrically supplied of course) water taps that can be controlled remotely (and automated if you wish) to water the various parts of your garden as required. My thought is that simpler is better as there are less things to break. Also, there is a wrench that the supplier of those plastic pipe fittings sell to tighten (and loosen for removal) those units, they are not too expensive and will save you a lot of time and effort when working on your water system. Love your vlogs, so enjoyable to watch what you are accomplishing and see you adapt and overcome the challenges you face. Be well.../B

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thank you - I appreciate the input! And I definitely need one of those wrenches you mention 😂

[@josernegre9499]

Hola. Quería comentar que el riego a manta o por inundación se hace entre cavallones, pequeñas elevaciones que determinan por donde va el agua y a los que no creo haber oido mencionar. Entiendo que los surcos se han hecho como medio de generar abono verde. Saludos y a la pelea!!

[@gianni1827]

Very nice episode, it's very interesting to hear about the reasoning, the tests, what worked and what didn't, thanks for sharing!

[@bfox5767]

I grew up in Asia, & the fields that were flood irrigated were basins, either above or below ground. The basins were always lower than the trenches. Each field had plants with similar water needs so you could flood each field only as often as the plants needed. If the field wasn't level then it was terraced. If the field was only slightly out of level then each field was planted based on water needs of the plants (plants that need more water where more water goes). Plant roots were watered deeply & little water was wasted since the roots filled the basins. Each basin had a water outlet that was open during the rainy season. Maybe it is similar to how it was done in the past in Spain.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thanks, that's super interesting. I've always wondered about the paddy field style of irrigation and how much water it requires, I don't know the technicalities. I believe in the past in Spain it was also normal to flood entire fields - but people also use channels too. Maybe a case of where/when water is more abundant...

[@gardentours]

I think it's a good idea to have some extra water 💦 tanks at the ruin 👍🏼

[@tcpip9999]

The comment in the video about edible plants in the water chane reminded me of an excellent 3 volume book I bought this year , called el llibre de les plantes silvestres comestibles by Collectiu Eixarcolant

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

I have 2 volumes of those books - they are great!

[@wiosnasmiechowska2842]

I am so glad I found your channel. Love it! We're on a similar journey at the moment, rejuvenating a derelict little farm in the spirit of leaving as little footprint as we possibly can, though in a totally different climate. What I find most inspiring is not the content itself (though I do think it's great), but your attitude. I know all too well all the ups and downs of working on an old farm and keep my fingers crossed for you! Greetings from Poland!

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Aw thank you, I appreciate it! Good luck with your journey 💚

[@albitalopez98]

Ah una cosa, los tanques de agua blancos, es mejor ponerlos a la sombra para que no generen algas o cuando vayas a regar no arda el agua, un beso a los dos 💚💚

[@veronicaschilling7924]

Te felicito. Eres tan trabajadora!

[@XRPSAINT]

Hi, I love what you are doing! I have used IBC tanks for the last 6 years for Aquaponics and water catchments and I have noticed that if they are exposed to direct sunlight that they can become brittle and weak, so I have begun using exterior plywood sheathing to enclose them. It's about $20 USD per sheet here and I think it is easier to protect the tanks than to have to rework the plumbing ever few years when one of the tankssprings a leak. Hope everything works well for you!

[@carollloydjones5735]

Have you ever thought of No Dig? It would save you loads of time and effort. Watch Charles Dowding. You're doing a great job 👍

[@alonew]

Tap not opening.. " Hit it with something?!!! " That made me laugh hard, 🤣

[@pgregory6357]

Nice video. Thanks

[@GS-mo2zj]

Your channel is completely fascinating and a pleasure to watch. One of the things that is so interesting to me is trying to imagine a man who built the infrastructure you have and what it was meant to do. In this episode there was an image of a big clay pipe going a very long distance and also in the garden near the water deposit there was Giant cement incompleted walls about 24-in by a meter long structures that were being built and you spoke of flood control and I can't figure out how this little spring has a refill rate that big or where there would have been enough water coming to the property for there to be flooding. I would love to hear about those features that are already there that you're walking past. Your home is a little piece of heaven and there's so much love in it past and present. I've never seen two people work so hard. It's a great adventure to watch God bless you

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Yes, I completely agree! It's been (still is) a long journey of trying to guess what stuff was used for ("why is this thing in this place? What does this do?" etc), helped by speaking to local people but sometimes even they're not sure! With the flood irrigation, my understanding is that it wouldn't have been done every day in every area. We are currently getting about 6000l a day, we could probably have 3 or 4 times that if we fixed some broken bits of pipe nearer the source but we just don't need that extra water at the moment. So I can imagine how the previous farmers could have drained a pretty big amount of water into the canals to open different doors of the canals each day, and the main deposit would have filled up again by the next day to do it all over again in a different area

[@susanaquezada7671]

Adelante Harriet, el riego es un asunto muy dificil cuando se lleva a la realidad. En teoria uno imagina que va a funcionar, pero llevarlo a la practica no es lo mismo. Al final, ensayo y error va a funcionar.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

jajaja, sí, totalmente!

[@elenaromero8604]

Buen trabajo Harriet!! Al final conseguirás regar por goteo o por inundación toda tu huerta. Posiblemente lo que riegues por inundación decidas dejarlo así si los resultados son buenos. Un fuerte abrazoara todos❤️❤️

[@calindafleishman]

Amazing work! Looks like you need a hand pulled cart on the farm, so you can move things around more easily (hauling the 3 water tanks up the hill looked back breaking!) ☺️

[@albitalopez98]

Me encantan tus vídeos siempre me dan muchas ganas de trabajar en mi terreno y me siento más comprendida cometiendo errores, siendo una inexperta. Gracias 💚

[@laurier3348]

You could also fertilize the soil and repair the deficiencies. Plants pump water up to transport their food up. When the soil is poor, the plant has to pump up much more water to get what it wants. on fertile soil the plant pumps up less water up and the soil doesn t dry out that quickly.

[@madhatter909]

you are so clever!

[@naomipretorius]

I love your energy and ingenuity. Merry Christmas to you and your family

[@mareedonovan4933]

Great vlogs. You’ve done amazing work on the land. Can you send your recipe for the yummy looking breakfast pancake please. Cheers xx

[@Yurei_Dokuro]

Demasiadas llaves de paso, habria bastado con 2 o 3 para inundar los canales por secciones y mantener la presión natural por el declive.

[@veronicaschilling7924]

El sistema que elegiste es el mejor y el más antiguo pq dura más aunque tmb hay que arrancar más maleza

[@jbyrd2516]

Fascinating to watch this and see your problem solving in action. It gives me ideas for my own small scale use too. Thanks for sharing it with us. Regards from Australia.

[@kwlalfie]

your videos are always so relaxing and educational, youre a real inspiration, both of you

[@rosavivesalvarez9647]

Una pena ,la primera parte la pude seguir con substitulos,luego ya no habia. Los sigo en español. Felicidades por el gran trabajo y esfuerzo en la finca

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Todo el video tiene subtítulos.. a lo mejor reiniciar la página ayudará si es un problema de youtube...

[@anselmomaillet5496]

Luego de publicidad colocar nuevamente subtitulos...así hago yo!

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

@@anselmomaillet5496 desaparecen después de los anuncios? Qué molesto...

[@RuralSpanishRetirement]

You have reminded me that I still have to work out some kind of automatic watering for my veggie plot, it's been 10 years and I still haven't decided on the final configuration.. 🤷🙄 and I'm not getting any younger lol. Very interesting set up you have. 😁👍

[@Cmy711]

While do u have constantly water to fiil up the main pound, u can up ther the rest of field dig smaller accumulation water pound trough Canals to the next etc, water sistem recirculating

[@Wiseguy63]

You did very well with the tabs in the field. Dad did an electric pump that goes to reservoirs with floaters that shut down water on the filled reservoirs, and had one or two tabs centrally positioned and can be used to water with hoses or fill some areas by hand. He connected dripping irrigation to the reservoirs and they seem to work. Electric pump allowed him to do manual watering with hoses at record time. I can't recommend much because I am Not familiar with the whole setup. I am sure could be a solution to do from that little pond. Great work, glad to see you got things going. I strongly advise you to give the electric pump a go. Make sure you run lines to reservoirs and at least one line with a tab to a central area. It is so handy for so many things. Good luck and wish you a Merry Christmas . 25cm of snow here .. Yuck

[@autoscanable]

Maybe an exudation hoses system could work? My place is much smaller though, I don't need that much structure, but I also use several ollas for my beds and some young trees or drier spots, they're working fine. I glued some clay pots together and bought two also, maybe in the meantime... Nice work and thanks for sharing

[@SmokingGouda]

Not sure if someone might've suggested this already, but if you stick with drip irrigation, you might just add a battery to your solar setup so that the panel just charges that and the pump can run off the battery when ever you want it to? Instead of using the water tanks? Also, have you happened to look into Permaculture? haha I literally just discovered it yesterday... besides just googling it, "Discover Permaculture with Geoff Lawton " and "Andrew Millison" seem to be solid channels about it on youtube...

[@Sandras12374]

Hi Harriet! We also have a Springwater cistern, but instead of one valve it has four at the bottom and each irrigates a different terrace. Maybe if you connect more valves and split up the irrigation into different sections (watering consecutively, not all at once), you will have more pressure. Just a thought, I don't know if that would work. I am sure you will find a way 💦

[@arjanvogel6444]

Thanks for your vid 😇💟💟💟 Love you guys, Mary Christmas 🎄.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Merry Christmas to you too!

[@Godblessforeveryone]

you can compute it. try searching hydraulics pipe networks or ram pump siphon. elevation and sizing of pipe is very important. i hope it will help.

[@daijenkins3497]

Hiya just a thought for you why not instal a Reed bed for all your water treatment , also try smaller bore water pipe to get more pressure it acts like a Venturi

[@ninemoonplanet]

You pointed out the width of the bed, a suggestion, plant bushes, high grasses, maybe smaller trees that grow slowly along the edge away from the line. It could give you less evaporation and a wind break. I haven't dealt with low water because I am at the bottom of a large hill, water is kept at the top. If anything, erosion is a much greater problem. The trenches did work out. Good, they're possible places for plants requiring more water, or lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes.

[@marvinb_g]

That was really interesting!

[@blessthegood1404]

You could do the original pump house idea and watered in the morning knowing it would recharge during the day

[@ecocentroraiz4]

Good work

[@Yves.Dethier]

Hello! To have pressure, look at something called "pompe bélier". I don't know the english name 😅 It works without electricity. I hope that it can help you 🤞

[@petermcfadden9426]

Yves, Hydraulic ram in English.

[@dorothyallen3614]

Yes it’s called a Ram Pump, no electricity needed! People use it to get water uphill, like to water troughs, check it out.

[@Yves.Dethier]

@@dorothyallen3614 I think that's a great solution to put water in the IBC 😊

[@vandalorian8777]

Great job. While watching, it dawned on me that if you wanted to automate the system you could replace the hand valves with 12 volt normally closed sprinkler system valves.

[@daijenkins3497]

Also try a build up your water tank another row of block work that will also create more water pressure 👍

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Yes, if we get 6 I'll stack 3 on top of 3. They are a little unsightly though so I'd need to check with neighbours... if anyone cares..

[@AlmostOrganicDorset]

Couple of things you need to think about. The water sitting in the pipes exposed to the sun will get red hot, once the valves are opened the initial flow will scald anything in it's path, they really need digging into the ground around 18" deep. You will also find if trying to use more than one tap at a time, the pressure will reduce drastically the further you get away from the source. Personally I would have cleared out the old canal system and utilised that, it obviously worked for the Romans. ;)

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

That is such a good point. I hope in summer i would be organised enough to be watering in the early morning so the water would be cool but that's still a good point I need to remember! I would like to fix up the original canals in the long run but this method buys me lots of time to do that and figure out the best way 🙂

[@AlmostOrganicDorset]

@@LittleSpanishFarmstead just cover them as best you can, anything to help keep them cooler. Good luck with the project.

[@deborahlee8135]

I think you can stack your tanks but they may need a firm concrete base, if not too windy it may be worth looking into? You could put trees in the triangle if the dont shade your gardens too much?

[@eeeeeetuu9784]

buen video

[@editedbycj9526]

i wish to live like this one day..

[@jjsoledad8553]

Likewise, it's a long-held dream of mine, but life gets in the way and throws up obstacles to doing so. By and by.

[@pedroramossuarez3937]

Haz cuadrantes en la tierra para que calcules el agua de la tubería de alimentación con las tiras de goteros, si pones muchas tiras de goteros igual la tubería de alimentación no es capaz de suministrar esa agua,

[@mompuff]

I can’t believe how hard you work!! 🥵🥵🥵👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@Gummmibaer]

wow i didnt know that youll need so much water pressure for drip irrigation. I just came back from a vacation to Tenerife and there were huge water basins on the terraced fields with drip irrigation attached to it everywhere. I didnt get to talk to farmers about how these systems work but I couldnt spot any pumps and they didnt seem to be that high up above the fields (definitely not 10m).

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Well as you might have noticed in the video, with the pressure we have, water *did* come out of the drippers. So it is possible. But the issue for us, which maybe wasn't clear in the video, is that you can't have many drippers open at the same time, with such low pressure. I'd have to be opening and closing lines all day so that each line got a few hours of time open, and that's just not practical. Or i could automate it but I wasn't keen to go down that route just yet. So I'm sure some combination of pressure + number of emitters and many other variables can make it work, even without the recommended pressure!

[@Jacksparrow4986]

I would recommend to not pursuing the tanks on the hill plan. You are basically building a gravity battery without a discharge function. Instead of moving the pump hours, story the electricity in batteries (preferably lifepo4) and then pump wheneber you need to. Having batteries instead of tanks is more efficient, way less work though more costly. But they can provide you with additional capacity in the winter and I don't believe you will need to water as much in winter. If you can avoid a pump altogether even better - instead of drip (high pressure) or flood (high maintenance) you need something like flow irrigation. I guess take drip irrigation and then just increase the "dripper" size till it works? You got lots of large pipe to work with so it should be relatively cheap. You might have bought to many taps - larger sections should work without a tap per line. Good luck, and thanks for sharing!

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thanks - I appreciate the input! I need to know what size pump I would need in that case, the kwh usage, and calculate how much battery capacity I need to be able to store. I can work out the cost and compare it to the work for the water battery. As for changing the dripper size, I can also do more experiments with that. But my feeling atm (having experimented a bit) is that having much higher pressure from the holes closest to the deposit is super annoying and results in really uneven (and wasteful) watering. There's more to explore though, for sure

[@Jacksparrow4986]

@LittleSpanishFarmstead uneven hole sizes would be the answer for the pressure gradient I believe, maybe combined with different hole spacing. The problem with the holes is that they aren't as easily adjustable as the drip irrigaters.

[@Jacksparrow4986]

@LittleSpanishFarmstead for the pump: You mentioned your einhell pump works for up to half an hour and suits your current needs for the most part? I guess that one is powered by 2 3ah batteries combined to 36v, so roughly 100wh. As I assume you water more in the summer than winter and when it's cloudy you water less, so your pv energy availability correlates strongly with your watering needs. You might be okay without any added storage at all as it's maybe half a kwh per day if you want to roughly double your watering - not accounting for reduced friction due to larger pipe. And I believe you improved your solar compared to last winter without upping batteries if I remember correctly?

[@Jacksparrow4986]

@LittleSpanishFarmstead I just found a dirt water pump, 690w 17500l/h, lifting max 9m so maybe just powerfull enough (high volume, lower pressure - others are rated to high). Guessing 50% output due to holes restricting flow (no idea if thats a good guess), the pump would need to run 20min for 3000l, consuming around 250wh. Dunno how much you need but to me it sounds plenty.

[@timkirkpatrick9155]

First the blue handle is a ball valve top, second the lines on the pipe coming below the ball valve show it is a plumbing union. Don't glue it.

[@pitufa2]

y si pones el tubo de goteo sin goteros y solo haces agujeros por sonde salga el agua donde te haga falta ,seria mas localizado y gastarias menos agua y regarias mas rapido ,es una idea

[@franciscoolavide7377]

Lo que te puede funcionar sin presion son las cintas porosas visareg malla roja yo las tengo y funcionan bien

[@jeffreyconroy1592]

Your sediment filter is installed in the wrong direction. That's a "Y" connection. When you spin it in the other direction, it lets the water water enter the open side of the screen filter that's inside that black plastic filter vessel.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

I didn't put it together, the guy who sold it to me did. Anyway, it's not installed at all any more.

[@losalmacigoscl]

Me pasó algo parecido acá en Chile, lo mejor fue ocupar una pequeña bomba presurizado, son baratas y aportaron presión a mis T y riego a goteo 😊

[@BillyBob-uc9zp]

Well done. Getting there. No pressure!!. Well as it happens, atmospheric pressure is naturally 14.5 psi. So that'll help. Off topic, possibly. Micro hydro systems are clever, efficient and quite reasonable on the purse strings to set up and can run a house full of appliances 24/7 for life. Marty T youtube channel has some good instructional videos on it for future project potential. Just a thought ❤️

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thank you - and thanks for the channel recommendation!

[@verdeyenbart]

I'm going to think out loud here...I'm no engineer or whatever, it' simply thinking out loud. While watching the video and listening to all the pros and especially cons of different ways of irrigation, I was thinking you would find some sort of 'automatic olla' system useful. You might have heard of ollas: unglazed terra-cotta pots that are buried into the ground and filled with water, so they can release it again gradually and directly into the soil. Since the water is released on a roots level, there is no risk of evaporation and you can water any time of day. That would mean an electric pump could be useful, since you can use it at noon when you've got most solar wattage. It would however mean you need to figure out a system that can fill underground basins. No idea if this is at all actual possible, like I said, but it was just an idea. :)

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thank you! I appreciate everyone thinking aloud here - lots of great ideas and angles come up :) Those ollas are very interesting, we have friends who use them for their young trees. I'm not sure how expensive it would be to have them in the whole garden but I would definitely love to experiment with them in certain places. Thanks for reminding me about them!

[@jeanettenicholas2863]

Merry Christmas to you both

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Aw thank you - to you too!!

[@franciscopandohidalgo8205]

Feliz Navidad chichos y gran año nuevo os traiga todo lo mejor🎉🎉

[@geralonso1997]

Tienes poca sección de riego, necesitas tubo de 100mm y luego colocar las salidas que tienes de 32mm, vas a tener que poner un a bomba, solar de 025 hp rondan los 120€/170€ en Alibaba, sin la placa eléctrica no supera los 90€ depende la marca

[@jaykey8092]

Great video as usual and great work with the pipes! If you will do (in my eyes) the big project with pumping water uphill when you have solar, maybe could be also possibility to use the power of water when it will flow down from the hill and charge some batteries. It was my first thought when you were explaining your idea to pump it up. The same way work big power plants - if they have to much electricity they pump water uphill to reservoir and when they need electricity the open the gates and use turbines for creating energy. No experience with it but maybe there is something in smaller scale. But for now it looks like the flood irrigation is enough for you and who knows, maybe you will like it like it is. BTW what is the current state of the flood irrigation you did couple of weeks back on the other side of the garden? When you were building the patch between beds.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Thank you! That's an interesting point about using the power of the water on the way back down, you're not the first person to mention it so that tells me it's something I should investigate further. I didn't know that's what they do in power plants, that's cool - the water is like a big battery! Do you mean the overflow channel I was digging from the water deposit, the one where I was clearing up a big flooded area? If so - it's doing its job, It's generally wet (with overflow water lol) but I haven't done much more in that area yet. There will be a little update in the next video I think!

[@auroraalonso1125]

pues sí que es complicado, este video me hace valorar más el legado de romanos y árabes en nuestra comunidad que la convirtieron en un vergel inmenso.

[@punjabseth260]

nice👌👌👌

[@damianfz]

Hi!! Do you have any drawings or maps that shows the land and the "sections" that you show?

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Ahh I'm sorry I don't at the moment. I should create one and add it to our website. Maybe a little project for the Christmas break!

[@Cmy711]

Hy let me give one ideea, so how many acre do u have, u can make on each parts in down side a pound for acumulating and recirculating water from the main pound to the next one, water pound acumulation and dig a canal to the next one, and i see that u u have constantly water fiiling up the main pound its easy

[@dorothyallen3614]

You’re a burst of energy and you brighten wherever you are, such a sweet spirit you and Maurio have. Be well and safe and have a Merry Christmas and the best of a New Year for 2023, much love to all. ❤️🎄👏🙏🎉

[@sarahsmith-iq6fn]

Hi Harriet i thought that was the idea of a drip system is for it to release slowly? Geniune question

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Yes, that's true! The issue is that the pressure was so low with just a few emitters open, as soon as we tried a 2nd line of emitters (and we wanted about 40 lines!) the pressure was sooo bad at the end of the line that the furthest plants didn't even get any water. With higher pressure, the emitters control the flow, not the pressure. So you get a more even amount coming out of each emitter, and you can water the whole garden at once instead of having to have some elaborate system of opening and closing lines one by one.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

I realise I didn't explain exactly why the low pressure was such a problem in the video, sorry!

[@fred8207]

Hi from France ! instead of putting the IBC on the hill with very long pipe distances (& costs), why not thinking VERTICAL instead of horizontal ? I mean putting 1 IBC at 4 meters high (platform made of concrete floor + 4 wood support + wood platform), the whole thing being filled in by a small solar panel (30W) pump i.e. filled in during summer/day period and used when you need, where you need ? you can install this "castle IBC platform" close to where you need. This is the principle of the town water tanks. Tell me.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

The reason we are using the natural hill instead of a water tower is that a) we don't have to build a water tower and b) the hill is about 10-12m above the height of the garden, which gives us really good pressure for irrigation. I think we gain more from the height than we lose (in pressure) from the additional horizontal piping.

[@capridovonrenislam4128]

Hi @Harriet please search "How to Make a "Water Ram" off-grid Water Pump, requires no electricity" here on KZbin; It's very simple yet very effective. I think you are more than capable to build one and you'll be set.

[@helicosta7260]

To make "trip-system" working,have to calculate how many holes are "open doing watering at the same time( like these old canals,you only open one section at time to water and then close it to open the next section) so maybe lenghtwise it not good for you without small pump? But I had over 200meters of tripping watering for fruit trees,each tree is about 6 meters apart only thing is ,it takes 20 min.or 30 min. Each section without pump.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Yes, I know what you mean.. that's something we tried as well, but I didn't really show it in the video. We put 2 drip lines in (out of a desired total of 20, I think) to see whether it would be feasible to have more than 1 line open at once (without a pump). It wasn't. So either we'd have to automate the opening/closing of all the lines, or we'd have to be opening and closing lines ourselves manually all day which is even more of a pain that watering by hand

[@helicosta7260]

True,hope you get it working well to help your garden to grow well, I enjoy your way of telling the story.Thanks

[@darren_anscombe]

Have you thought of controlled flood irrigation ? Comparing to how they do it in Arizona

[@darren_anscombe]

Feel a bit dumb now as suggested this before watching the whole video :(

[@reubenhooft541]

As someone that was a professional irrigation designer and installer this was really hard to watch. That was a really expensive way to do it. I would really have lived to be able to steer you in the right direction.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

If you have any helpful comments, I'm all ears. Many other people have been helpful on this video, which partly is why I posted it.

[@markwalker7813]

A thought on the rotary hoe required to plough the field by the chicken coop.....could you not ask around in the local community? Someone, somewhere nearby will have a rotary hoe. Be wary of a tractor-mounted one, as you'll need to be super careful with pipelines, and it might be tricky to get a tractor in there.... But ask the neighbours. The goat dairy farmer could probably help...? As in most rural communities, assistance is based on 'scratch scratch', so it might only cost you a few days labour at harvest time to get free use of a tractor, rotavator and driver for a few hours.... I point this out because it's how other small farmers get this sort of thing done. Ken and Gina at OK Portugal (Portugal Farm Life on YT) have a willing neighbour who 'share farms' their land and so grows fodder to feed his sheep in exchange for helping Ken manage his olive and grape harvests. OK, so they are in Portugal, but farmers are the same sort of people the world over. Just ask..!! Someone will offer to help....

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Yes, that's why I talk about "renting or borrowing". Borrowing from someone local.

[@paolacortez3295]

Hola buenos tarde, puedes poner los sustitulo para poder entender ,ya que tu canal también se ve en el país chile quisiera entender lo que haces me parece interesante pero no entiendo tu idioma chao y gracias 🙏

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Todos mis videos tienen subtitulos en español, puedes elegir el idioma haciendo clic en el icono del engranaje 😊

[@egalegal1666]

are you sure that is correct with the 1bar and 10 meters? I think you have misunderstood something You need 1 bar to push water 10m high but you need only 1-1,5m to generate 1 bar of water pressure with gravity. correct me if I am wrong You can also stack 2-3 IBCs on top of each other and connect them with T-connectors to generate more pressure. I would just stack them and switch the pump with a timer. In the top IBC tank you simply install a float switch (in germany we call this "Schwimmschalter") that turns off the pump when the waterlevel has reached level X and sometime later the timer turns everything off as an example search for "Ruesious ZP4510" then you see what I mean

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

I never feel 100% sure of anything lol, but I'm pretty sure you're incorrect here. You need about 10m of head to generate 1 bar of pressure.

[@djazt.8053]

10 m are needed to generated 1 bar with gravity. Here's a little calculation: a water pillar or 10 m × 1 cm × 1 cm has a volume of 1000×1×1 = 1000 cm³ = 1l. That 1 l water weighs 1 kg. So a 10 m water pillar provides a pressure of 1 kg/cm², which is exactly how 1 bar is defined.

[@gorillax1374]

1) build small platforms in your fields 2) put an IBC tote on each platform 3) gravity feed water to each tote 4) the water in each tote will reach the same level as the main deposit 5) irrigation lines from each tote (using the largest diameter pipe possible) will have the same pressure as a line adjacent to the main deposit 6) if you want to add solar pumping, the amount of power necessary to pump from each tote will be radically less than necessary to pumping from the main deposit, so the time of day will be less of an issue 7) this shouldn't cost any less than pumping water up the hill because pumping a lot of water up ten meters vertically and many meters horizontally, then maintaining pressure on the way down is going to require a big pump, large diameter pipe, and lots of wattage relative to pumping perhaps ten meters on the flat.

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

Okay that's totally different to anything we'd considered before and definitely interesting - thanks for the input! Exactly what I love about sharing this stuff on KZbin!

[@bassoonrckr]

I have some IBC totes on platforms next to my house as rain barrels, but it’s similar to the pressure she had a the beginning of the video, slow and only covers a small area in the bed. About 1 PSI, no pump, but it’s working for now and have much smaller area than her field. Interesting to see different watering techniques!

[@gorillax1374]

@@bassoonrckr Cool. Sow is fine. Less evaporative loss.

[@gorillax1374]

@@LittleSpanishFarmstead It's all about the effects of pipe diameter and length on friction. The bigger the pipe and the shorter the run the better. You might also consider radial rather than parallel beds. In your current design, the water has to got through a lot of small pipe to reach the end of the line. If you run one really big pipe out to a central hub (tote), you'll have little frictional loss. You can then have shorter lines radiating like spokes out from that. They didn't do this with traditional flood irrigation because pipe friction wasn't an issue.

[@gorillax1374]

@@LittleSpanishFarmstead The amount of friction experienced by each unit of water is determined by ratio of pipe inside circumference to cross sectional area. This ratio decreases linearly with pipe diameter. So water running through a 1cm pipe experiences twice the friction of water in a 2cm pipe and five times the friction in a 5cm pipe. Consequently you will get the biggest bang for buck (euro) and time by using the large diameter pipe to transport water out into your fields, then switching to smaller pipe only to locally distribute the water in beds. You will spend far less time and money investing in some thicker pipe than you will buying solar panels.and pumps and running it long distances up and down hills. This is a low tech and well tested approach. It's how they run municipal water, sewer, and power lines for exactly the same reasons.

[@djohnsonmusic]

If you pumped water up using solar during the day, would you be able to at some point fit like a water wheel on the way down to generate power and recharge the batteries in the morning too? Or would that lower the water pressure?

[@LittleSpanishFarmstead]

I suppose in theory yes! I have no idea how many watts a little turbine like that could produce...

[@veronicaschilling7924]

E inteligente 💖💛💙