I didn't know greenhouses needed so much water. Gets me to thinking how to easily open up the top in a rainstorm. Nice technique with the cans. Another good thing about cans is easily adding fertilizer etc. For now I use nothing but the garden hose and a wand on my 50 foot rows. If you set things up right it is very easy. Takes me about an hour to water ten rows. A standpipe sprinkler would take over eight hours.
Yes, the watering cans make it really easy to add liquid fertility, a point didn't make in the video, but I did show adding a brown liquid feed in one of the shots.
Add rain catchment to your pollytunnel. From this you can operate the soaker hoses directly as they require very little water presure. Add a timer and it is automated. Thanks for the great video. I always look forward to them. All the best, - Chaos
We have chloramine in our water supply here. It is even worse than chlorine. I use a small little cylinder filter on my hose when watering. The cost was minimal and they are good for like 10000 gallons. It's not a hassle at all to use and the flow rate is great. I have seen a big difference in my plant production because of this. I will never put municipal water on my soil again. Thanks for another educational video.
Thank you for posting this subject! I really appreciate how thorough you are explaining your process and all the pros/cons. I have a low-pressure issue. I have a small garden, but I would like to expand it when I get my watering system figured out. I live in a semi-arid climate, which is very different from yours.
That is a very different climate to the situation I deal with. I have had a lot of success with the tanks of water in a low pressure context, but they do have their issues.
I was always struggeling with watering plants, but i ended up with watering cans. For me it´s best way to water plants and soil, it´s a bit of additional work when you must walk with them, but it´s worth it in my opinion.
I think it's a great opportunity for extra to check on plants for pests or disease, but the time saving is huge for at least some of it being automated. Will fit some drippers with a high pressure gravity system over winter ready for next year :)
@@ginger_wby I use two 14 litre watering cans at a time. That's carrying almost 30kg. I've no choice as we can't irrigate properly. It's a good workout yet I invariably und up with very wet shoes and trousers. I keep meaning to install gravity irrigation in my greenhouse yet I'm not a commercial grower and very small scale so never get around to it.
I agree about out being a great opportunity to check out all the plants when watering by hand. It is something that I definitely don't do enough when I can simply turn on a valve at the end of the garden, and I have missed a few issues. But the time saving is worth it for me, especially during the hectic parts off the season.
I suppose I like the watering cans because I can do a deep soak while also getting between the leaves. With the drip line it can be difficult to get the water down past the first few inches? Maybe a timer to set up early in the morning is what I'll do. Would love to program an Arduino to manage soil moisture and watering timers while opening and closing the greenhouse windows when it gets too hot. More of a pastime project but could be useful if it works. Something to do in the long winter months
As usual, super clear and informative, i don't even have a garden and find your reflections on the subject super interesting. I wish you would do sponsorships, as I'm developing some software for market gardeners (french only for now, but an English version is coming). It would be great to finance your efforts this way. But your point of view is very respectable, and i understand the "no bullshit" approach.
I've added charcoal to my soil and have yet to see any noticeble difference.. though it might be happening. I've not rigourously analysed it. I would add more though, if only to bulk up my soil.
I haven't got around to doing any real testing yet, sorry. It is on my list, but it has been a hectic season! The one garden that I have added it to seems to be doing well, but I don't have any control or comparison to be sure of the impact. Hopefully next year.
Vanderlynden Jengold that’s what I think I’m going to do as well, gotta go camping some time so I can make it and bring it home with me. Can’t hurt to test right?
You may want to have a look at this report "Biochar application in agriculture". To be downloaded here ('hier') www.nmi-agro.nl/2013/05/27/biochar-application-in-agriculture/ I'm afraid it is somewhat of a disappointment: "Both crop yield and crop quality were not affected by biochar incorporation at all three locations. Similar findings were shown for the soil food web’s composition and size, the composition of the dissolved organic matter fraction, the basic soil solution chemistry (such as EC, pH and nutrients), the organic matter levels and characteristics (hot water carbon, CN-ratio, N supplying capacity and anaerobic mineralization rate), and the basic soil chemical and physical properties (like pH, CEC, infiltration capacity, penetration resistance, etc.). If any changes occur, then they didn’t develop in a consequent direction giving doubt whether biochar application itself was the main factor driving the soil variables to change." But the conditions in your soil may be different. In my opinion (and it is not more than that) in the tropics, where organic matter decomposes at a much faster rate than than where I live, one may want to incorporate really stable organic matter. As I remember, soil depth is very shallow in the Amazon region.
RED Gardens evaporation is a huge problem so I mulch between 6”-12” throughout our gardens and trees. The mulch holds water and slowly releases it and adds a lot of organic matter to our soil. We also compost all of our yard waste and food scraps.
Another excellent video! I’m in an extremely dry area (California) and I have soaker hose watering half of my garden right now and have the same issue of the surface just always being dry. The mulch breaks down very slowly or not at all in some places. I also water by hand occasionally to mitigate this. I’m about to install drip line in the rest of my garden just because I can put it on a timer and won’t have to worry during our long hot and dry periods.
The drip line on a timer can be a great benefit, and avoids a lot of hassle. And it it frees you up to hand water the surface to keep up the soil moisture, then all the better.
Watering has become a real issue for me. I have an allotment in Yorkshire and the soil is sandy. We have a prolonged dry spring in recent years and are not allowed to water with a hose pipe. During the dry season it is near impossible to keep the plants watered with a watering can every night after work. Besides, any expensive irrigation tools might get stolen. So, I turned to wood chipping the growing beds to preserve the moisture longer, which worked much better than bare soil. You can direct sow seeds in a wood-chipped bed if you know how to do it. However, I am still on the look out for additional ways to hold moisture in, especially for shallow-rooted plants and seedlings. I may try Ollas a go. I am also thinking of stuffing nylon stockings with water-retentive gel and burying the "sausage" in the ground near thirsty roots.
Love your videos. Very inspiring. I have a suggestion/request for an experiment if you don't mind. Here goes: It would be cool to see data on green-bean harvesting yield when beans were inoculated versus no inoculation. A step futher would be to test if the farmer inoculates by following the exact instructions (soaking the bean in a water and inoculant mix prior to planting), versus just pouring some inoculant on top of the bean as you plant (this is what I do). I am never really sure if inoculant provides a significant return on the investment.. I apologize if you have done this already but I missed the video. Row #1: Inoculated based on label instructions of inoculant provider. Row #2: Pour inoculant on top of bean prior to covering with soil and watering Row #3: No inoculant at all.
your videos are always dense of information and experience. thanks again. I'd like to use lines of ground sprinklers in setting up my(dream) market garden, I hope they don't have many down sides, so far they seem useful in reducing plastic and labour, also to spray some compost tea or similars. I'd like to know if there are other plants that don't like this kind of irrigation, thanks! in my dreams i will be able to grow thick polyculture patches with a single line
I think lines of sprinklers are great especially for delivering compost teas. sorry, I don't know if there are any plants that don't like that kind of irrigation.
Thank you Bruce for sharing, had been debating between top spraying or drip lines for polytunnel. Was favouring the drip system but this video confirmed it. Take care 👍
im always amazed how much water it takes to actually soak in. i water one little area for what feels like a long time then i dig in to check and the top half inch is wet only and bone dry under
For those people who’ve adopted the no-dig system, I’d like to put in a word for underground porous pipes. The pipes themselves are pretty cheap at slightly under £1 per metre. Several years ago I buried pipes under my vegetable garden, about 10 cm down. I supply them from a rainwater tank. The advantages of this system are that the compost on the surface of the soil stays dry and unattractive to slugs, and that you can water the garden by just turning a tap. The disadvantages are that you need to check first before hammering in stakes, and that you have to be sure not to grow vegetables that need deep digging to harvest, like leeks, Japanese radishes, and burdock, directly over the pipes. I personally think that the advantages outweigh the downsides, even here in rainy Wales.
Twenty years ago it was a very light, free-draining soil, but after having had organic matter added to it every year, it's dark and spongy and retains water quite well. But I believe porous pipes would also work successfully in a light soil, since at 10 cm depth the soil is likely to be somewhat compacted and would therefore hold water well.
Why not add a mulch or wood chips on the paths. I’m sure the apple farmer close to you cuts their tree back later in the year and that would be a fantastic source of biodiversity, increase the microorganisms and help with the dry patches? Thanks again for making these videos, they’re very informative and enjoyable to watch.
I do have a mulch layer on the paths, adding wood chip every season. and this does help with evaporation, but the plant roots suck the area under the paths dry anyway, especially not that there is fertility form the decomposition of the wood chip.
Very valuable insights. Tanks a million! I am currently exploring the water harvesting / solar / battery / pumps route. There is a *lot* to learn and discover in the application of these technologies. I hope to add micro controllers into the mix, in time, along with sensors to measure external variables, such as sun light hours and intensity.
Yeah, there is so many options with technology, and something I am very interested in, but just haven't got around to exploring yet. Perhaps next year!
Do you have any video or data on how much heat the water provides during night? It would be interesting to see how much the 5L jugs help in your smaller tunnel aswell. Thanks!
Why no tillage? On my roof garden I make it a point to empty the grow bags, spread out the soil in the sun for a few days then replant when required. As regards watering in my ignorance I installed a drip irrigation system which has taken off quite a load of our time.
As always an excellently thought out video. Thank you. Perhaps, in the future a video you could discuss your return on investment, especially if you intend to add solar.
At our allotment, a lot of the gardeners have put in boreholes. As we are close to the river and the water table is high, they work very well. Even in the very hot and dry summer last year. I would like to put one in but they cost around £700 and use a petrol pump. I would like it more if I could use an electric pump with battery's and solar panels.
*Looks at even rain in Ireland throughout the year *Realises is in Australia and has zero choices but to irrigate Spring/Summer/Autumn lol It's interesting to see others approaches to the challenges they face. I have the opposite a constant wet year is very rare and is dry most of the time. Even tho we are in a Temperate region of my country. I plan to invest into a drip, mainly because they can function under mulch which we must use just to keep the soil moist and cool. Plus the fruit trees we are planting will benefit most from that.
It is really interesting to understand how people deal with really different conditions. Drip line under the mulch makes a lot of sense. Here in Ireland we often have soil that is too cool and wet, especially in the spring.
i use watering cans when the plants are still seeding, bc i know how much water and i keep the surface moist when the plants mature and i get tired of watering many rised beds i switch to drip irrigation using a combination of 20mm high pressure lines and derive from it 6mm ones that end with small drippers i space them 25cm apart, and so far i reduce water loss and they keep the rised beds wet nicely but the issue with them is i need to inspect them on weekly basis because some of them clog bc of buildup of dust, bacteria films and salts but i'm happy with this system so far, this summer i left the garden on auto for a month and i returned and i found most trees and vegetables are fine even tho ambient temperature is like 45C, and past years some new transplanted trees died and most vegetables didnt survive some dripped got clogged but because each bed had like 8 drippers it wasnt a big issue because we only get 2hours of water per day on our main, i have a 1m3 water tank at about 1m high from ground, it fills and empties during the day, while i have a 3m3 tank burried underground for emergencies if water is cut or too low pressure to fill the main tank
Hello I am from australia and i was just wondering if thoes watering cans are available here? Does anyone know what they are? The continious handle makes the action from moving to watering far easier than putting them down. Thanks
The smaller the water droplet, the more dissolved oxygen. Misters, suspended from the hoops (hoop house) would, therefore be best for crops that don't mind overhead watering. Or, for applying tea or dissolved amendments, best to fill a drum using the mister and then dip out the oxygenated water for mixing.
At 3:15 the water coming out of your watering can is very yellowish. Are you using a compost tea or water soluble fertilizer? Thanks for the video! I've been watching for a while and always enjoy your content.
Yes, it included a liquid feed (dropped that part of the explanation from the video). Thanks for watching, and great to see that you are continuing with your own channel!
Why do you consider it a good thing to water the paths? In my garden of raised beds I consider that a waste of water. By the way, have you considered driving a well point down to the water table to use your local ground water? That would wean you off the municipal system. You could use a pitcher pump as proof of concept, and if it looks good, use your prospective solar power to do the pumping. In my garden I used a post-hole digger to get down about 18 feet, and then drove the well point to get down further.
The main reason for watering the paths is to allow the plant roots to grow into that space - extra soil space. I have thought of drilling a well like that. I don't think I would have to go too far down.
Hi again, I can imagine this isn't that big of a factor for larger scale gardening, but have you done any tests with watering with animal urine vs fertilized water sources? Good video. :)
Great Video once again. You mentioned the tank of water as thermal mass for your polytunnel. Have you ever seen a polytunnel in Ireland that uses the Gaht or climate battery system and in your opinion would it work in Ireland and extend your growing season?
@@REDGardens I would love to try it, but maybe with a closed loop water pipe as I think with air ducts, mold would build up with our damp climate. It would be an expensive gamble if it didnt work out tho.
to fix the chlorine issue from main, i fill a 1m3 tank before the water goes to drip lines i encouraged algae growth by putting mixing urine for a while in the main irigation tank and there was since a thick film of algae growing on the water tank's walls, seemingly helping rise the PO2 of water and venting chlorine
Do you have a link to the watering cans with the nice roses? I have two different watering cans and generic rose ends that don’t really fit the watering can spouts and would love to upgrade them to something useful like yours appear to be. I presume they are 7.5ltr instead of 5ltr?
@@REDGardens not a problem, thanks for the reply. They look like they do the job perfectly in the video, but 10ltr, no wonder you were talking about upper body strength building 😎
Ireland seems like.a great place to.garden...inhave fought the water problem as well as.massive heat my whole life..i.HATE THE HEAT...AND.DRY TIME.DESPITE IT MAKING MY JOINTS FEEL MUCH BETTER. Last.year i.set up.watering lines...really.didnt.help me...it just.was too much a up hill battle...the heat we get REQUIRED shading plants...and the extra time to water and the cost..what i got in return.for sunmer growing and ...saving my time and back just.wasnt worth the extra costs and.time .during.hotndry times.instay inside and let the land.rest.
We do a lot of weeding, trying to clear all the growing spaces of weeds once a week. Extra work in the beginning of the season, but a lot less effort later in the year, and better quality vegetables with higher yields!
Excellent. Didn't Bloomberg say something to the effect of "...it doesn't take much brains to farm?" IDK that I possess that level of contemptuousness.
10:10 that can be expensive, you could use used solar panels and recycled batterys. used solar panels can be found on ebay selling in perfectly working condintion for £95 to £110 for a 220 to 300W panel a new one would cost 300 to 400 batterys can be cheap if you go for a small one.
We have no supply so if I don't collect and store it, I don't have it. Collection for 2021 summer watering started today - we collect into waterbutts off the greenhouse and poly, and transfer into IBC containers to store it. I'm there all winter doing so and then all summer everyone can't figure out why i have water and they don't. I fitted guttering to the poly the day after the poly was finished. within 10 minutes of fitting it, it started raining.
@@REDGardens I have 2 plus 3 collection 330l water butts and another 3 330l water butts for storage plus various other containers to collect and save water in. The trick is to have them all full by the end of April and use the collection butts first so that they always fill back up when it does rain. I put a poly in this year and ive not run out since getting the IBCs. Two summers ago I was taking water to the plot in my car so this seems about right for one 8ft greenhouse and one 15ft poly. Even one of your polytunnels would take all the water I could collect in a year; it's a constant job moving water from one butt to another.
It can be an issue, and another reason fro using the drip line. but in the outside gardens there is often a lot of rain anyway, so I don't worry about the use of sprinklers.
My problem with drip tape is mice! If the tape is left long after the gardener leaves the garden, in Fall, the mice chew holes in the tape, searching for water.
Why not excavate a centralised pond? How far down is the water table? Bore a hole, then utilise manual and/or wind-driven pump? Use old car tyres and butyl rubber to create an above ground storage tank?
A few interesting ideas. The site I am using isn't on my own land and is shared with other people in my community, so options and locations for a pond are limited. There is one space for a small pond at the end of one of my polytunnels. The water table is fairly shallow, estimated 6-8 meters in the summer, and I have been thinking of installing a bore hole in a location close to the gardens. A windmill would be adoption but as I don't have space for storing huge quantities of water above ground it makes sense to me to just keep it in the ground and pump it when needed, with the pressure that is useful, which leads back to solar/wind and batteries. In my context, with lots of municipal water available (especially once I put in a pipe to bypass the current blockage) it reduces the necessity, and benefit of the expense and work, but still would be good for resilience. I'd rather stay away from rubber for water storage, and in the gardens, when I need the water during a dry period i would use something like 6000L of water a week - minimum - which is a lot of capacity.
@@REDGardens The municipal supply, on the face of it, looks like the best option, but is treated. Is there a pro rata cost for its supply? Harvesting from the polytunnels should give you ample supplies for storing, by whatever means. Your area of the world is not renowned for being excessively dry, which is a major plus. :o) Here in north east Lincolnshire, our water table has never dropped to more than 1.5 metres below the surface. Easy pumping. A bore hole down to 8 metres is very doable and would provide another useful watering tool. We're looking forward to seeing how things progress. Cheers.
For overhead I use these www.fruithillfarm.com/tools/greenhouse-and-polytunnel-accessories/sprinkler-systems/overhead-sprinkler-head.html And I also use ground based ones www.fruithillfarm.com/tools/greenhouse-and-polytunnel-accessories/sprinkler-systems/ground-sprinkler-head-1.html
Bruce, have you had your irrigation water tested, if your water supply is a "hard" water then you could be tieing up a lot of the minerals you have been adding. This link gives a good introduction to the subject. www.chelseagreen.com/2019/minerals-in-your-farms-water/ Rain water harvesting becomes more important considering this.
Chloramine would be bad, chlorine is an oxidiser (adds oxygen) and is evaporative. Unless your water supply has an excessively and unusually high free available chrlorine value, it should evaporate (or oxygenate). But I get it, supplies differ and some cretin supplies have chloramine in it :( Here by us in south africa, I try to catch and use rain water (for gardening, shower, domestic use) in winter, but in summer we have to use well water :( Water saving and wastage on overhead sprinklers seem to be forcing us into a drip & mulch based system however. "So system ideal" = the truest of words
Interesting point about the Chloramine. I don't know what is in our supply, but the smell of chlorine seems to dissipate from the water fairly quickly once it is exposed to air, which is good. As i said, I don't know how much of an issue it is, and not necessarily enough of a concern to avoid one method entirely, but I see it as a n additional benefit of keeping a tank of water around.
The best watering for me of ever is I use a immersible water pump I put it in my rain barrel 220Liters and Once a week I put my homemade liquid fertilizer in the barrel www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-submersible-utility-pump-0623575p.html#srp
Interesting that you mention dry paths. This year I started intentionally watering the wood-chip covered paths between my raised beds, hoping to keep the ground moisture "battery" more consistently charged across the whole garden, and enable more biological activity there, to help support the plants living in beds. It will probably mean more frequent refreshes of the path covering, as it will likely decompose more quickly, but may reduce watering frequency and increase overall nutrient availability for the crops. I wonder if at some point it makes sense to transition to something inorganic like flagstones, instead of adding what will eventually amount to several feet of soil over a few decades, to my little 300 square meter garden.
having the paths as a moisture battery is a good thing, I think. And I have noticed that a lot fo plant roots are now entering the paths, which is expanding the growing space for roots underground. And the faster decomposition of the wood chip can be seen as a good thing, as it is feeding the soil, which feeds the plants! It just means that it needs to be topped up more regularly.
I didn't know greenhouses needed so much water. Gets me to thinking how to easily open up the top in a rainstorm. Nice technique with the cans. Another good thing about cans is easily adding fertilizer etc. For now I use nothing but the garden hose and a wand on my 50 foot rows. If you set things up right it is very easy. Takes me about an hour to water ten rows. A standpipe sprinkler would take over eight hours.
Yes, the watering cans make it really easy to add liquid fertility, a point didn't make in the video, but I did show adding a brown liquid feed in one of the shots.
Add rain catchment to your pollytunnel. From this you can operate the soaker hoses directly as they require very little water presure. Add a timer and it is automated.
Thanks for the great video. I always look forward to them.
All the best,
- Chaos
Excellent video
Thanks!
We have chloramine in our water supply here. It is even worse than chlorine. I use a small little cylinder filter on my hose when watering. The cost was minimal and they are good for like 10000 gallons. It's not a hassle at all to use and the flow rate is great. I have seen a big difference in my plant production because of this. I will never put municipal water on my soil again. Thanks for another educational video.
Thank you for posting this subject! I really appreciate how thorough you are explaining your process and all the pros/cons. I have a low-pressure issue. I have a small garden, but I would like to expand it when I get my watering system figured out. I live in a semi-arid climate, which is very different from yours.
That is a very different climate to the situation I deal with. I have had a lot of success with the tanks of water in a low pressure context, but they do have their issues.
I was always struggeling with watering plants, but i ended up with watering cans. For me it´s best way to water plants and soil, it´s a bit of additional work when you must walk with them, but it´s worth it in my opinion.
I think it's a great opportunity for extra to check on plants for pests or disease, but the time saving is huge for at least some of it being automated. Will fit some drippers with a high pressure gravity system over winter ready for next year :)
@@ginger_wby I use two 14 litre watering cans at a time. That's carrying almost 30kg. I've no choice as we can't irrigate properly. It's a good workout yet I invariably und up with very wet shoes and trousers. I keep meaning to install gravity irrigation in my greenhouse yet I'm not a commercial grower and very small scale so never get around to it.
I agree about out being a great opportunity to check out all the plants when watering by hand. It is something that I definitely don't do enough when I can simply turn on a valve at the end of the garden, and I have missed a few issues. But the time saving is worth it for me, especially during the hectic parts off the season.
I suppose I like the watering cans because I can do a deep soak while also getting between the leaves. With the drip line it can be difficult to get the water down past the first few inches? Maybe a timer to set up early in the morning is what I'll do. Would love to program an Arduino to manage soil moisture and watering timers while opening and closing the greenhouse windows when it gets too hot. More of a pastime project but could be useful if it works. Something to do in the long winter months
As usual, super clear and informative, i don't even have a garden and find your reflections on the subject super interesting. I wish you would do sponsorships, as I'm developing some software for market gardeners (french only for now, but an English version is coming). It would be great to finance your efforts this way. But your point of view is very respectable, and i understand the "no bullshit" approach.
Thanks! I appreciate you comment about sponsorships, and avoiding that finance option is tough, but I think worth it!
Love seeing these videos in my timeline, did you ever end up implementing the bio char in your soil and if so how do you like it?
I've added charcoal to my soil and have yet to see any noticeble difference.. though it might be happening. I've not rigourously analysed it. I would add more though, if only to bulk up my soil.
I haven't got around to doing any real testing yet, sorry. It is on my list, but it has been a hectic season! The one garden that I have added it to seems to be doing well, but I don't have any control or comparison to be sure of the impact. Hopefully next year.
RED Gardens thanks for the response! Can’t wait for that video!
Vanderlynden Jengold that’s what I think I’m going to do as well, gotta go camping some time so I can make it and bring it home with me. Can’t hurt to test right?
You may want to have a look at this report "Biochar application in agriculture". To be downloaded here ('hier') www.nmi-agro.nl/2013/05/27/biochar-application-in-agriculture/
I'm afraid it is somewhat of a disappointment: "Both crop yield and crop quality were not affected by biochar incorporation at all three locations. Similar findings were shown for the soil food web’s composition and size, the composition of the dissolved organic matter fraction, the basic soil solution chemistry (such as EC, pH and nutrients), the organic matter levels and characteristics (hot water carbon, CN-ratio, N supplying capacity and anaerobic mineralization rate), and the basic soil chemical and physical properties (like pH, CEC, infiltration capacity, penetration resistance, etc.). If any changes occur, then they didn’t develop in a consequent direction giving doubt whether biochar application itself was the main factor driving the soil variables to change."
But the conditions in your soil may be different. In my opinion (and it is not more than that) in the tropics, where organic matter decomposes at a much faster rate than than where I live, one may want to incorporate really stable organic matter. As I remember, soil depth is very shallow in the Amazon region.
Great information, we use a lot of bubblers, drip irrigation and emitters here in Arizona and thank you for sharing.
Glad you found value in my video. Arizona is a very different growing condition, and I imagine evaporation is a much bigger issue to deal with.
RED Gardens evaporation is a huge problem so I mulch between 6”-12” throughout our gardens and trees. The mulch holds water and slowly releases it and adds a lot of organic matter to our soil. We also compost all of our yard waste and food scraps.
As always, very good analysis! Thank you
Another excellent video! I’m in an extremely dry area (California) and I have soaker hose watering half of my garden right now and have the same issue of the surface just always being dry. The mulch breaks down very slowly or not at all in some places. I also water by hand occasionally to mitigate this. I’m about to install drip line in the rest of my garden just because I can put it on a timer and won’t have to worry during our long hot and dry periods.
The drip line on a timer can be a great benefit, and avoids a lot of hassle. And it it frees you up to hand water the surface to keep up the soil moisture, then all the better.
Watering has become a real issue for me. I have an allotment in Yorkshire and the soil is sandy. We have a prolonged dry spring in recent years and are not allowed to water with a hose pipe. During the dry season it is near impossible to keep the plants watered with a watering can every night after work. Besides, any expensive irrigation tools might get stolen. So, I turned to wood chipping the growing beds to preserve the moisture longer, which worked much better than bare soil. You can direct sow seeds in a wood-chipped bed if you know how to do it. However, I am still on the look out for additional ways to hold moisture in, especially for shallow-rooted plants and seedlings. I may try Ollas a go. I am also thinking of stuffing nylon stockings with water-retentive gel and burying the "sausage" in the ground near thirsty roots.
Love your videos. Very inspiring. I have a suggestion/request for an experiment if you don't mind.
Here goes: It would be cool to see data on green-bean harvesting yield when beans were inoculated versus no inoculation.
A step futher would be to test if the farmer inoculates by following the exact instructions (soaking the bean in a water and inoculant mix prior to planting), versus just pouring some inoculant on top of the bean as you plant (this is what I do). I am never really sure if inoculant provides a significant return on the investment..
I apologize if you have done this already but I missed the video.
Row #1: Inoculated based on label instructions of inoculant provider.
Row #2: Pour inoculant on top of bean prior to covering with soil and watering
Row #3: No inoculant at all.
your videos are always dense of information and experience. thanks again.
I'd like to use lines of ground sprinklers in setting up my(dream) market garden, I hope they don't have many down sides, so far they seem useful in reducing plastic and labour, also to spray some compost tea or similars. I'd like to know if there are other plants that don't like this kind of irrigation, thanks!
in my dreams i will be able to grow thick polyculture patches with a single line
I think lines of sprinklers are great especially for delivering compost teas. sorry, I don't know if there are any plants that don't like that kind of irrigation.
A refractometer is useful in helping to properly gauge soil moisture - too dry = low reading / too wet = low reading.
very informative and enjoyable
thanks
Thank you Bruce for sharing, had been debating between top spraying or drip lines for polytunnel. Was favouring the drip system but this video confirmed it. Take care 👍
Glad to help
Love you water!
:)
im always amazed how much water it takes to actually soak in. i water one little area for what feels like a long time then i dig in to check and the top half inch is wet only and bone dry under
Yeah, it is amazing how much it can take to fill up dry soil again.
a good rule of thumbs for me is 5-10L/m2 per day depending on the temperature and the state of the soil
For those people who’ve adopted the no-dig system, I’d like to put in a word for underground porous pipes. The pipes themselves are pretty cheap at slightly under £1 per metre. Several years ago I buried pipes under my vegetable garden, about 10 cm down. I supply them from a rainwater tank. The advantages of this system are that the compost on the surface of the soil stays dry and unattractive to slugs, and that you can water the garden by just turning a tap. The disadvantages are that you need to check first before hammering in stakes, and that you have to be sure not to grow vegetables that need deep digging to harvest, like leeks, Japanese radishes, and burdock, directly over the pipes. I personally think that the advantages outweigh the downsides, even here in rainy Wales.
That is an interesting option. I like the idea that slugs are not happy. Do you have a clay based soil, or something that is more free draining?
Twenty years ago it was a very light, free-draining soil, but after having had organic matter added to it every year, it's dark and spongy and retains water quite well. But I believe porous pipes would also work successfully in a light soil, since at 10 cm depth the soil is likely to be somewhat compacted and would therefore hold water well.
Why not add a mulch or wood chips on the paths. I’m sure the apple farmer close to you cuts their tree back later in the year and that would be a fantastic source of biodiversity, increase the microorganisms and help with the dry patches? Thanks again for making these videos, they’re very informative and enjoyable to watch.
I do have a mulch layer on the paths, adding wood chip every season. and this does help with evaporation, but the plant roots suck the area under the paths dry anyway, especially not that there is fertility form the decomposition of the wood chip.
Very valuable insights. Tanks a million! I am currently exploring the water harvesting / solar / battery / pumps route. There is a *lot* to learn and discover in the application of these technologies. I hope to add micro controllers into the mix, in time, along with sensors to measure external variables, such as sun light hours and intensity.
N.B. Irrigatia do "off the shelf" systems. www.irrigatia.com/
Water harvesting is a good idea, I wonder if it's economical/practical for Red Gardens though?
Yeah, there is so many options with technology, and something I am very interested in, but just haven't got around to exploring yet. Perhaps next year!
@@REDGardens ruclips.net/video/kbi6WiALYXg/видео.html
Do you have any video or data on how much heat the water provides during night? It would be interesting to see how much the 5L jugs help in your smaller tunnel aswell. Thanks!
Very useful. I was just thinking about what water system I want to setup next year. And if I want to get fancy with soil moisture probes
Glad it has been useful for you! I have been thinking of using soil probes, but just haven't got around to it yet.
Why no tillage? On my roof garden I make it a point to empty the grow bags, spread out the soil in the sun for a few days then replant when required.
As regards watering in my ignorance I installed a drip irrigation system which has taken off quite a load of our time.
*chuckes in high altitude semi-arid climate* Drip is my friend. Drip and a ton of mulch.
Such different places!
As always an excellently thought out video. Thank you. Perhaps, in the future a video you could discuss your return on investment, especially if you intend to add solar.
Great tips thanks for the video
:)
At our allotment, a lot of the gardeners have put in boreholes. As we are close to the river and the water table is high, they work very well. Even in the very hot and dry summer last year. I would like to put one in but they cost around £700 and use a petrol pump. I would like it more if I could use an electric pump with battery's and solar panels.
That is something that I want to do.
*Looks at even rain in Ireland throughout the year
*Realises is in Australia and has zero choices but to irrigate Spring/Summer/Autumn lol
It's interesting to see others approaches to the challenges they face. I have the opposite a constant wet year is very rare and is dry most of the time. Even tho we are in a Temperate region of my country. I plan to invest into a drip, mainly because they can function under mulch which we must use just to keep the soil moist and cool. Plus the fruit trees we are planting will benefit most from that.
It is really interesting to understand how people deal with really different conditions. Drip line under the mulch makes a lot of sense. Here in Ireland we often have soil that is too cool and wet, especially in the spring.
i use watering cans when the plants are still seeding, bc i know how much water and i keep the surface moist
when the plants mature and i get tired of watering many rised beds
i switch to drip irrigation using a combination of 20mm high pressure lines and derive from it 6mm ones that end with small drippers
i space them 25cm apart, and so far i reduce water loss and they keep the rised beds wet nicely
but the issue with them is i need to inspect them on weekly basis because some of them clog bc of buildup of dust, bacteria films and salts
but i'm happy with this system so far, this summer i left the garden on auto for a month and i returned and i found most trees and vegetables are fine even tho ambient temperature is like 45C, and past years some new transplanted trees died and most vegetables didnt survive
some dripped got clogged but because each bed had like 8 drippers it wasnt a big issue
because we only get 2hours of water per day on our main, i have a 1m3 water tank at about 1m high from ground, it fills and empties during the day, while i have a 3m3 tank burried underground for emergencies if water is cut or too low pressure to fill the main tank
Hello
I am from australia and i was just wondering if thoes watering cans are available here? Does anyone know what they are? The continious handle makes the action from moving to watering far easier than putting them down. Thanks
The smaller the water droplet, the more dissolved oxygen. Misters, suspended from the hoops (hoop house) would, therefore be best for crops that don't mind overhead watering. Or, for applying tea or dissolved amendments, best to fill a drum using the mister and then dip out the oxygenated water for mixing.
At 3:15 the water coming out of your watering can is very yellowish. Are you using a compost tea or water soluble fertilizer? Thanks for the video! I've been watching for a while and always enjoy your content.
Yes, it included a liquid feed (dropped that part of the explanation from the video). Thanks for watching, and great to see that you are continuing with your own channel!
great
:)
also it might be helpful to get your hands on one of those construction cable spools to roll your irrigation on.
Hmmm, I wonder if that would work.
@@REDGardens might save space, and can always be used as a table
Why do you consider it a good thing to water the paths? In my garden of raised beds I consider that a waste of water.
By the way, have you considered driving a well point down to the water table to use your local ground water? That would wean you off the municipal system. You could use a pitcher pump as proof of concept, and if it looks good, use your prospective solar power to do the pumping. In my garden I used a post-hole digger to get down about 18 feet, and then drove the well point to get down further.
The main reason for watering the paths is to allow the plant roots to grow into that space - extra soil space.
I have thought of drilling a well like that. I don't think I would have to go too far down.
Hi again, I can imagine this isn't that big of a factor for larger scale gardening, but have you done any tests with watering with animal urine vs fertilized water sources?
Good video. :)
Great Video once again. You mentioned the tank of water as thermal mass for your polytunnel. Have you ever seen a polytunnel in Ireland that uses the Gaht or climate battery system and in your opinion would it work in Ireland and extend your growing season?
I haven't seen one here in Ireland, but I an very interested in trying it out, as I think it would be really beneficial.
@@REDGardens I would love to try it, but maybe with a closed loop water pipe as I think with air ducts, mold would build up with our damp climate. It would be an expensive gamble if it didnt work out tho.
to fix the chlorine issue from main, i fill a 1m3 tank before the water goes to drip lines
i encouraged algae growth by putting mixing urine for a while in the main irigation tank
and there was since a thick film of algae growing on the water tank's walls, seemingly helping rise the PO2 of water and venting chlorine
You add chlorine to get rid of chlorine?
@@theopeterbroers819 i added urine to promote algae growth
and algae rise dissolved water and helps vent the chlorine
@@zazugee I see, the oxygen the emit stirs the water.
Do you have a link to the watering cans with the nice roses?
I have two different watering cans and generic rose ends that don’t really fit the watering can spouts and would love to upgrade them to something useful like yours appear to be.
I presume they are 7.5ltr instead of 5ltr?
They are 10L and I can't remember where I got them, sorry,
@@REDGardens not a problem, thanks for the reply.
They look like they do the job perfectly in the video, but 10ltr, no wonder you were talking about upper body strength building 😎
Can you hook your drip line to your water tubs to boost your water pressure?
I'd need a pump to boost the pressure.
You should build a underground tank for rain water collection. or just dig a pond.
I have plans to do that.
Ireland seems like.a great place to.garden...inhave fought the water problem as well as.massive heat my whole life..i.HATE THE HEAT...AND.DRY TIME.DESPITE IT MAKING MY JOINTS FEEL MUCH BETTER.
Last.year i.set up.watering lines...really.didnt.help me...it just.was too much a up hill battle...the heat we get REQUIRED shading plants...and the extra time to water and the cost..what i got in return.for sunmer growing and ...saving my time and back just.wasnt worth the extra costs and.time
.during.hotndry times.instay inside and let the land.rest.
How do you keep your beds so clean? I never see any weeds in your videos.
We do a lot of weeding, trying to clear all the growing spaces of weeds once a week. Extra work in the beginning of the season, but a lot less effort later in the year, and better quality vegetables with higher yields!
what watering cans would you recommend? all the ones I find tend to not be that great.
I don't have any recommendations, I just bought what was available and have nothing to compare them to. Sorry.
@@REDGardens Well they look good. Full length handle and gentle water flow.
Drip lines are probably what is killing your neighborhood water pressure.
It's hard to find a good watering can these days the ends are so cheap i wish they'd make a stronger threading for them
Excellent.
Didn't Bloomberg say something to the effect of "...it doesn't take much brains to farm?"
IDK that I possess that level of contemptuousness.
Some people just don't understand what is involved ...
@@REDGardens
Hey Red. --- Been wanting to speak with you.
10:10 that can be expensive, you could use used solar panels and recycled batterys.
used solar panels can be found on ebay selling in perfectly working condintion for £95 to £110 for a 220 to 300W panel a new one would cost 300 to 400
batterys can be cheap if you go for a small one.
We have no supply so if I don't collect and store it, I don't have it. Collection for 2021 summer watering started today - we collect into waterbutts off the greenhouse and poly, and transfer into IBC containers to store it. I'm there all winter doing so and then all summer everyone can't figure out why i have water and they don't. I fitted guttering to the poly the day after the poly was finished. within 10 minutes of fitting it, it started raining.
That is a tough context. How many IBC containers do you use?
@@REDGardens I have 2 plus 3 collection 330l water butts and another 3 330l water butts for storage plus various other containers to collect and save water in.
The trick is to have them all full by the end of April and use the collection butts first so that they always fill back up when it does rain. I put a poly in
this year and ive not run out since getting the IBCs. Two summers ago I was taking water to the plot in my car so this seems about right for one 8ft greenhouse and one 15ft poly. Even one of your polytunnels would take all the water I could collect in a year; it's a constant job moving water from one butt to another.
Are you not worried about disease as a result of the moisture like blight for instance?
It can be an issue, and another reason fro using the drip line. but in the outside gardens there is often a lot of rain anyway, so I don't worry about the use of sprinklers.
8:02 holy tomato
Haha - it is a good crop!
My problem with drip tape is mice! If the tape is left long after the gardener leaves the garden, in Fall, the mice chew holes in the tape, searching for water.
Why not excavate a centralised pond?
How far down is the water table?
Bore a hole, then utilise manual and/or wind-driven pump?
Use old car tyres and butyl rubber to create an above ground storage tank?
A few interesting ideas.
The site I am using isn't on my own land and is shared with other people in my community, so options and locations for a pond are limited. There is one space for a small pond at the end of one of my polytunnels.
The water table is fairly shallow, estimated 6-8 meters in the summer, and I have been thinking of installing a bore hole in a location close to the gardens. A windmill would be adoption but as I don't have space for storing huge quantities of water above ground it makes sense to me to just keep it in the ground and pump it when needed, with the pressure that is useful, which leads back to solar/wind and batteries. In my context, with lots of municipal water available (especially once I put in a pipe to bypass the current blockage) it reduces the necessity, and benefit of the expense and work, but still would be good for resilience.
I'd rather stay away from rubber for water storage, and in the gardens, when I need the water during a dry period i would use something like 6000L of water a week - minimum - which is a lot of capacity.
@@REDGardens The municipal supply, on the face of it, looks like the best option, but is treated.
Is there a pro rata cost for its supply?
Harvesting from the polytunnels should give you ample supplies for storing, by whatever means.
Your area of the world is not renowned for being excessively dry, which is a major plus. :o)
Here in north east Lincolnshire, our water table has never dropped to more than 1.5 metres below the surface. Easy pumping.
A bore hole down to 8 metres is very doable and would provide another useful watering tool.
We're looking forward to seeing how things progress. Cheers.
Does anyone know what sprinkler devices he uses?
For overhead I use these www.fruithillfarm.com/tools/greenhouse-and-polytunnel-accessories/sprinkler-systems/overhead-sprinkler-head.html
And I also use ground based ones www.fruithillfarm.com/tools/greenhouse-and-polytunnel-accessories/sprinkler-systems/ground-sprinkler-head-1.html
@@REDGardens Thank you, so much.
I add a lot of mulch and compost and let the sky do the watering for me
Have you ever dug down during a dry period to see how dry the soil gets about a foot down? I was quite surprised when I did that a few times.
Bruce, have you had your irrigation water tested, if your water supply is a "hard" water then you could be tieing up a lot of the minerals you have been adding. This link gives a good introduction to the subject. www.chelseagreen.com/2019/minerals-in-your-farms-water/
Rain water harvesting becomes more important considering this.
Chloramine would be bad, chlorine is an oxidiser (adds oxygen) and is evaporative. Unless your water supply has an excessively and unusually high free available chrlorine value, it should evaporate (or oxygenate). But I get it, supplies differ and some cretin supplies have chloramine in it :(
Here by us in south africa, I try to catch and use rain water (for gardening, shower, domestic use) in winter, but in summer we have to use well water :(
Water saving and wastage on overhead sprinklers seem to be forcing us into a drip & mulch based system however. "So system ideal" = the truest of words
Interesting point about the Chloramine. I don't know what is in our supply, but the smell of chlorine seems to dissipate from the water fairly quickly once it is exposed to air, which is good. As i said, I don't know how much of an issue it is, and not necessarily enough of a concern to avoid one method entirely, but I see it as a n additional benefit of keeping a tank of water around.
Drip irrigation
Yep ...
We are so lucky not fearing salt be raised in the water table
Yeah, we are fortunate in that way. With all the rain in Ireland, salt buildup isn't really an issue.
The best watering for me of ever is I use a immersible water pump
I put it in my rain barrel 220Liters and
Once a week I put my homemade liquid fertilizer in the barrel
www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/mastercraft-submersible-utility-pump-0623575p.html#srp
Looks like a good option, especially with adding the liquid feed to the water. Thanks.
Interesting that you mention dry paths. This year I started intentionally watering the wood-chip covered paths between my raised beds, hoping to keep the ground moisture "battery" more consistently charged across the whole garden, and enable more biological activity there, to help support the plants living in beds. It will probably mean more frequent refreshes of the path covering, as it will likely decompose more quickly, but may reduce watering frequency and increase overall nutrient availability for the crops. I wonder if at some point it makes sense to transition to something inorganic like flagstones, instead of adding what will eventually amount to several feet of soil over a few decades, to my little 300 square meter garden.
having the paths as a moisture battery is a good thing, I think. And I have noticed that a lot fo plant roots are now entering the paths, which is expanding the growing space for roots underground. And the faster decomposition of the wood chip can be seen as a good thing, as it is feeding the soil, which feeds the plants! It just means that it needs to be topped up more regularly.
i see people shifting to subsurface tape. i dont like the idea of ripping it up every time you harvest though.
I haven't tried that tape, but it does seem a waste of plastic, especially here in Ireland where water is not scarce.