Nice video, I'm glad I'm not the only scientist that likes to experiment with this type of stuff. I need more barrels! Only advise would be to add finished compost to the system, but is an easy fix. Cheers!
WOW! That is some system you have built. The sub-sytem for brewing tea is really cool. Amazing how many feet of piping you have with a great pressure. Thanks for posting.
I like this idea, I have chloramine in my water supply which makes is almost impossible to get rid of and will kill beneficial microbes so I cannot make good compost tea. Also, I just wanted to let you know, 660 gallons with the weight of the barrels is well over 4 1/2 TONS of water .... I hope you built your scaffold to handle that much weight because that's a lot and if it tips or crashes someone or something could get damaged pretty bad. Nice video, thanks.
Awesome setup man.You seem to share the same kind of passion I have for building things to improve my garden.I'm sure if we ever met we would be good friends with lots to talk about :)
Brian, cool idea for recycling the 55-gallon drums. I wonder what kind of roof you have above the barrels. I believe you have to be careful about harvesting rainwater off of any type of roof that is not steel or natural clay tiles. A tar-paper roof can leach toxins into your water that can poison your garden soil. Also I have to agree that you could better your compost tea recipe. May I suggest looking up youtube vids: Amrut mitti, Amrut jal or the One man, One cow, One earth series. Cheers!
No issues with the neighbors. Heck, one of our neighbors is elderly (around 85) and we've told him he is more than welcome to come over and get some of the water. He has flowers and plants all around his house. He also does have his own 55 gallon barrel underneath one of his downspouts to collect water - and that is where I got the idea... except I did it on a much larger scale.
Wow, thank you for pointing that out; I fail to put the weight into consideration in my blue print thinking 2x4 are going to be enough. I'm looking to build 10 x 55 gal system, and that at full capacity, comes out to be what you mention. 2.75 tons!!!
I paid $10 for a few of the barrels - but the majority of them were free. I got them at a oil changing business. They had their windshield wiper fluid in the 55 gallon containers - and so I picked them up.
I really enjoyed your video. Raising your rain barrels to increase the water pressure is sheer genius and setting up your garden bed in a long row along the edge of the plot is an incredibly smart way to maximize the use of a small space. Also the irrigation system is simple but effective. How difficult would it be to install a solar powered timer valve to fully automate the irrigation drip system?
I've been contemplating a solar powered version of this, but i've recently done something similar with a CAI Webcontrol board with an analog level sensor which will open/close a 120VAC 3/8" water valve along with a 12VDC RV type water pump at the same time.
Brian, cool system and a great idea for recycling the 55-gallon drums. I wonder what kind of roof you have above the barrels. I've read in places that you have to be careful about harvesting rainwater off of any type of roof that is not steel or natural terra cotta clay tiles. A classic tar paper roof can leach toxins into your water that can poison your garden soil.
for a permanent install, dig a 24in hole, and pour concrete footers with an L-Bolt. Then use a galvanized connector attached to the L bolt with a nut and attach the PT post to the base. Don't make the post too high you dont want a lot of R-cross-F torque ripping the post off the connector. So make the post maybe 12in tall then put in horizontal connectors too all the posts so if the break free then would ALL need to break free. For a must stronger design, add diagonals to each corner.
Very well set up but if one has to buy everything, what is the initial outlay, including the big pressure treated frame to hold all the barrels. Where I live the barrels alone are $15
you really should secure the barrels to the structure, i know that they wont blow away when full, if your system breaks, some barrels may not be filled, and anything can happen then.
Open to good ideas? Attach a spray hose nozzle to the end of your compost tea fill faucet & you can gain extreem water control ez as pie.From mist too powerfill. Just my $.02 for ya. I like yr set up.Mine is being built similar.
owesome job, man! You must have spent lots of bucks and labour on it. The barrels are heavy with water up there. The wood structure needs to be strong enough. Did you dig and make cement post in the ground?
Might be some mis-communication here. The posts are 4x4 and they do have lag screws in them. The barrels are then sitting on top of 2 x 6 boards - more than capable of handling the weight. The system has been up for two years and has been rock solid.
I'm curious to know how well the plants like that system... I want to see end results of the fruit of the plants you've grown using that ingenuous idea.
We live technically within city limits - but it is a neighborhood. It is behind the house so it is not seen from the street - except for our raised garden beds in the front yard. As for a crime - absolutely not. I've never heard of any kind of law that prohibits citizens from collecting rainwater. Heck, it actually helps the storm drainage systems. Countless people around the country have rainwater collection systems.
@electrodacus I have a garden bed next to the house, behind the garage, and two 4x20 areas in the front yard - along with two 4x4 strawberry beds. Takes a lot of water to keep everything hydrated.
No problems. You don't actually pump any of the material into the barrels that would cause plugging problems. That is why the compost tea is all made in the barrels down below - and then pumped up into the main water barrels.
6:20 you may (will) need to put an expansion loop in any long runs like this. Temperature fluctuations and even flow will cause runs like that to expand / contract and move quite a bit. Without an expansion loop something may (will) eventually give out -- and you don't want 300 gal. of liquid running out into the side of the building. google: piping expansion loop (it can be horizontal).
The idea of using the PVC does take more time to get all setup - but over the season, it is much faster to turn a ball valve and come back five minutes later to turn it off. No having to walk around the garden hand-watering anything. And with the PVC, it is directly on the ground in most areas so it prevents any diseases from having wet leaves.
I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to setup a solar-powered timer valve. I have used battery-powered valves without a problem - one from Nelson and another one (can't remember the maker of it - but it is green).
well you can also make normal compost now and then and spread it around in your garden, and let the rain do the rest without any system ....it will have the same result.... so is this system necessary after all (material cost, a bit of energy cost, time, visual aspect,....) ? I wonder....
You could probably use less water(need less barrels) if the irrigation pipes were lowered a few centimeters underground. Not to mention that your PVC pipes will degrade in 2-5 years due to UV rays from the sun. But I like your system man!
I like your system in some ways, not so much in others, but overall I think you have something good going on here. I like the invention aspect, and that it is clearly a working system. I don't like that it's unsightly,lacks being more automatic, and includes plugging and unplugging electrical components outside. You have a lot of worthwhile ideas, and they should be expanded, but give some thought to asthetics.
wonderful wonderful job. Does this allow you to use only rain water and no city or potable water ? Are your neighbors saying anything about the appearance of this system ? What about mosquitoes ? Again , great job and thank you for sharing !!
Why not use standard drip irrigation hose, that is made from recy tires, and in the fall/winter sells for 3-4 bucks/50ft for the good stuff, and 1 buck for the cheap stuff.
let it sit at the bottom level for 2-3 days and aerate it using a pump, and it will be vastly improved in terms of tea potential. Then pump it back up (if you want the tea that diluted, as it will be once it is reintegrated into your multiple-barrel reservoir system).
Being a carpenter I've looked at the structure you have the barrels on. The barrels full will be over 400 pounds each.Take that times 12 and I see potential disaster. I have rain barrels and my first thought was to accomidate the weight for safety and liability issues. It looks like you built supports with 1"x4" and even though I see screws through the 4"x 4"s you need large lag-bolts and supports. I wouldn't want to be near that if the rain-barrels were full and the structure failed. Safety 1st
@trje246 It is somewhat hard to find these. I found most of mine at a oil changing place where they got windshield wiper fluid in these containers. Rinse em out a little bit and you are good.
I didn't really use the compost tea portion this year at all. Because of last year and the drought, I used the other four barrels at the bottom for extra water storage this year. Didn't end up needing it. But in all honesty, I didn't really see much difference with using water compost tea versus regular rain water.
Great system. My compliments. However, I do believe you have to use the actual compost to make tea, not the ingredients for compost. Good luck with your garden!
Very nicely done. Quick question. Does everybody look just as funny when they first see yours as they do at my house? haha... I invite you to check out my 600 gal system. Its not as elaborate as yours however I'm not anywhere near the gardener you are. I guess the audio got removed do to me adding a song, but you will get the idea without it.
@rbxtreme96 I don't see much need to actually secure the barrels to the platform. The fact that all of them are hooked together makes them around 240 pounds total without water in them.
there are states where taxes are collected for all roof areas which stop the rain from directly hitting the ground, and there are/were states in the SW where collecting rain from your roof is illegal. i believe utah rescinded such a law a year or two ago...strange times!
So far, I've not had any problems with the PVC breaking down or causing issues. But, the area just behind the setup is a wooded area (to the south) so there isn't a lot of direct sunlight very often.
Neighbors don't seem to mind. Actually, the neighbor next door uses water out of the system when he needs to water his flowers and such. Mosquitoes don't appear to be any worse than any other area.
Yes, this turned out to be a very expensive project. I got most of the barrels for no cost - but I did have to purchase about four or five of them. Then you have the 4x4 posts, the lag screws, and 2x6 boards that the barrels sit on top of - plus all of the concrete. This system first started with only four barrels - so it took a few modifications. But, if I made the system this way to begin with, the lumber, concrete, and barrels would have cost about $200 total.
@tucsonpersonified Yes, I have had some of that problem before - with algae. I have to just hook it up the lines to water from the house - which is pressurized - and it took care of it.
Good job. Question-do you live in the country or the suburbs? Cause you have a lot of rain barrels and do your neighbors or city authority have a problem with it? Also, is it a crime to collect that much rain water without getting a visit from the police?
not bad i dont like the fact you have to pump the tea back up i thank it should be rain water compost tea and a drip line under the soil with a time clock and sprinkle valve but thats me
Gary Harrington,of Jackson County Oregon who owns a 170 acres property was collecting rain water, i don't know how the local authority found out but he was arrested and spent 30 days in jail and paid $1,500 in fine to the city. That was in 2012. Oak Park, Michigan, Jason and Julie Bass were charged with a misdemeanor for planting a vegetable garden on their yard, this happened back in 2011, they were scheduled to go to court, if found guilty, they could face up 3 months in jail.
@vormwmik54 The PVC pipe was a better solution in this case. Garden hose is actually more expensive - because a 10-foot section of PVC was less than $1 each. 50 feet of garden hose is more than $5. Using garden hose would have also made it harder to drill small holes in and can kink up - whereas PVC pipe is easy to drill holes in, connect together, and it is rigid so it will never kink or collapse.
white PVC is not "rated" for outdoor use. UV rays will weaken it over time and it will crack rendering your irrigation system useless. You should paint that line.
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Nice video, I'm glad I'm not the only scientist that likes to experiment with this type of stuff. I need more barrels! Only advise would be to add finished compost to the system, but is an easy fix. Cheers!
WOW! That is some system you have built. The sub-sytem for brewing tea is really cool. Amazing how many feet of piping you have with a great pressure. Thanks for posting.
I like this idea, I have chloramine in my water supply which makes is almost impossible to get rid of and will kill beneficial microbes so I cannot make good compost tea. Also, I just wanted to let you know, 660 gallons with the weight of the barrels is well over 4 1/2 TONS of water .... I hope you built your scaffold to handle that much weight because that's a lot and if it tips or crashes someone or something could get damaged pretty bad. Nice video, thanks.
dude that is so awesome! Thanks for documenting and sharing all your hard work! I'm really inspired!
Awesome setup man.You seem to share the same kind of passion I have for building things to improve my garden.I'm sure if we ever met we would be good friends with lots to talk about :)
That's pretty amazing. Nice job.
Brian, cool idea for recycling the 55-gallon drums. I wonder what kind of roof you have above the barrels. I believe you have to be careful about harvesting rainwater off of any type of roof that is not steel or natural clay tiles. A tar-paper roof can leach toxins into your water that can poison your garden soil. Also I have to agree that you could better your compost tea recipe. May I suggest looking up youtube vids: Amrut mitti, Amrut jal or the One man, One cow, One earth series. Cheers!
No issues with the neighbors. Heck, one of our neighbors is elderly (around 85) and we've told him he is more than welcome to come over and get some of the water. He has flowers and plants all around his house. He also does have his own 55 gallon barrel underneath one of his downspouts to collect water - and that is where I got the idea... except I did it on a much larger scale.
Wow, thank you for pointing that out; I fail to put the weight into consideration in my blue print thinking 2x4 are going to be enough. I'm looking to build 10 x 55 gal system, and that at full capacity, comes out to be what you mention. 2.75 tons!!!
I paid $10 for a few of the barrels - but the majority of them were free. I got them at a oil changing business. They had their windshield wiper fluid in the 55 gallon containers - and so I picked them up.
YES! Awesome set up bro. Keep the videos coming!
exceptional job, keep doing well
great design and a nice informative vid, good job
I really enjoyed your video. Raising your rain barrels to increase the water pressure is sheer genius and setting up your garden bed in a long row along the edge of the plot is an incredibly smart way to maximize the use of a small space. Also the irrigation system is simple but effective. How difficult would it be to install a solar powered timer valve to fully automate the irrigation drip system?
I've been contemplating a solar powered version of this, but i've recently done something similar with a CAI Webcontrol board with an analog level sensor which will open/close a 120VAC 3/8" water valve along with a 12VDC RV type water pump at the same time.
Brian, cool system and a great idea for recycling the 55-gallon drums. I wonder what kind of roof you have above the barrels. I've read in places that you have to be careful about harvesting rainwater off of any type of roof that is not steel or natural terra cotta clay tiles. A classic tar paper roof can leach toxins into your water that can poison your garden soil.
for a permanent install, dig a 24in hole, and pour concrete footers with an L-Bolt. Then use a galvanized connector attached to the L bolt with a nut and attach the PT post to the base. Don't make the post too high you dont want a lot of R-cross-F torque ripping the post off the connector. So make the post maybe 12in tall then put in horizontal connectors too all the posts so if the break free then would ALL need to break free. For a must stronger design, add diagonals to each corner.
that was what i was thinking i am glad you brought taht up cause i was confused
I visited some poor regions of Mexico a while back and saw this exact same system for collecting water.
Very well set up but if one has to buy everything, what is the initial outlay, including the big pressure treated frame to hold all the barrels. Where I live the barrels alone are $15
you really should secure the barrels to the structure, i know that they wont blow away when full, if your system breaks, some barrels may not be filled, and anything can happen then.
Open to good ideas? Attach a spray hose nozzle to the end of your compost tea fill faucet & you can gain extreem water control ez as pie.From mist too powerfill. Just my $.02 for ya. I like yr set up.Mine is being built similar.
owesome job, man!
You must have spent lots of bucks and labour on it. The barrels are heavy with water up there. The wood structure needs to be strong enough. Did you dig and make cement post in the ground?
Any issues with your neighbors? I wasn't certain how together you are. Great system!
Might be some mis-communication here. The posts are 4x4 and they do have lag screws in them. The barrels are then sitting on top of 2 x 6 boards - more than capable of handling the weight. The system has been up for two years and has been rock solid.
Dude seems a little nerdy but this is pretty badass. I'd use totes or buy a 1000 gal vessel, but anyone doing this type of thing gets points.
cool video, i like the setup
I'm curious to know how well the plants like that system... I want to see end results of the fruit of the plants you've grown using that ingenuous idea.
Wow man, fuckin super basis, combo setup. Very impressed.
We live technically within city limits - but it is a neighborhood. It is behind the house so it is not seen from the street - except for our raised garden beds in the front yard. As for a crime - absolutely not. I've never heard of any kind of law that prohibits citizens from collecting rainwater. Heck, it actually helps the storm drainage systems. Countless people around the country have rainwater collection systems.
Very informative video. thanks
Hi Brian it's great, can you do a little video on how the compost tea works? How you're using gravity to filter into the one barrel?
@electrodacus
I have a garden bed next to the house, behind the garage, and two 4x20 areas in the front yard - along with two 4x4 strawberry beds. Takes a lot of water to keep everything hydrated.
this is such an awesome system, i just wish there was an alternative to PVC.
Nice I need some thing like that for plants
No problems. You don't actually pump any of the material into the barrels that would cause plugging problems. That is why the compost tea is all made in the barrels down below - and then pumped up into the main water barrels.
6:20 you may (will) need to put an expansion loop in any long runs like this. Temperature fluctuations and even flow will cause runs like that to expand / contract and move quite a bit. Without an expansion loop something may (will) eventually give out -- and you don't want 300 gal. of liquid running out into the side of the building. google: piping expansion loop (it can be horizontal).
The idea of using the PVC does take more time to get all setup - but over the season, it is much faster to turn a ball valve and come back five minutes later to turn it off. No having to walk around the garden hand-watering anything. And with the PVC, it is directly on the ground in most areas so it prevents any diseases from having wet leaves.
I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to setup a solar-powered timer valve. I have used battery-powered valves without a problem - one from Nelson and another one (can't remember the maker of it - but it is green).
well you can also make normal compost now and then and spread it around in your garden, and let the rain do the rest without any system ....it will have the same result.... so is this system necessary after all (material cost, a bit of energy cost, time, visual aspect,....) ? I wonder....
You could probably use less water(need less barrels) if the irrigation pipes were lowered a few centimeters underground. Not to mention that your PVC pipes will degrade in 2-5 years due to UV rays from the sun. But I like your system man!
I like your system in some ways, not so much in others, but overall I think you have something good going on here. I like the invention aspect, and that it is clearly a working system. I don't like that it's unsightly,lacks being more automatic, and includes plugging and unplugging electrical components outside. You have a lot of worthwhile ideas, and they should be expanded, but give some thought to asthetics.
awsome me and my dad and the rest of my family is going to be preppers we going to have 3 barrels i dont no how much gallons
Yes, posts are 24 inches below the ground and filled with concrete.
wonderful wonderful job. Does this allow you to use only rain water and no city or potable water ? Are your neighbors saying anything about the appearance of this system ? What about mosquitoes ? Again , great job and thank you for sharing !!
Why not use standard drip irrigation hose, that is made from recy tires, and in the fall/winter sells for 3-4 bucks/50ft for the good stuff, and 1 buck for the cheap stuff.
let it sit at the bottom level for 2-3 days and aerate it using a pump, and it will be vastly improved in terms of tea potential. Then pump it back up (if you want the tea that diluted, as it will be once it is reintegrated into your multiple-barrel reservoir system).
Being a carpenter I've looked at the structure you have the barrels on. The barrels full will be over 400 pounds each.Take that times 12 and I see potential disaster. I have rain barrels and my first thought was to accomidate the weight for safety and liability issues. It looks like you built supports with 1"x4" and even though I see screws through the 4"x 4"s you need large lag-bolts and supports. I wouldn't want to be near that if the rain-barrels were full and the structure failed. Safety 1st
@trje246
It is somewhat hard to find these. I found most of mine at a oil changing place where they got windshield wiper fluid in these containers. Rinse em out a little bit and you are good.
I didn't really use the compost tea portion this year at all. Because of last year and the drought, I used the other four barrels at the bottom for extra water storage this year. Didn't end up needing it. But in all honesty, I didn't really see much difference with using water compost tea versus regular rain water.
Great system. My compliments. However, I do believe you have to use the actual compost to make tea, not the ingredients for compost.
Good luck with your garden!
Very nicely done. Quick question. Does everybody look just as funny when they first see yours as they do at my house? haha... I invite you to check out my 600 gal system. Its not as elaborate as yours however I'm not anywhere near the gardener you are. I guess the audio got removed do to me adding a song, but you will get the idea without it.
@rbxtreme96
I don't see much need to actually secure the barrels to the platform. The fact that all of them are hooked together makes them around 240 pounds total without water in them.
Farms also use these barrels if anyone is struggling to source them
there are states where taxes are collected for all roof areas which stop the rain from directly hitting the ground, and there are/were states in the SW where collecting rain from your roof is illegal. i believe utah rescinded such a law a year or two ago...strange times!
I'm taking a wild guess, but I'm sure he drains the whole system and closes off any water intake so nothing freezes and cracks.
So far, I've not had any problems with the PVC breaking down or causing issues. But, the area just behind the setup is a wooded area (to the south) so there isn't a lot of direct sunlight very often.
Thats 5600 pounds of water, if that structure ever fails I would not want anyone near that! How are those piers sunk into the ground?
it looks like you may need some cross bracing with the wood structure, also what are the cross beams, the short pieces look like 1x4.
Impressive!
Can you show how you attached the piping to the barrels? Thasnk!
very nice work congra
Neighbors don't seem to mind. Actually, the neighbor next door uses water out of the system when he needs to water his flowers and such. Mosquitoes don't appear to be any worse than any other area.
if you haven't done so ,i suggest you close the system to keep mosquitoes out.
Was wondering if you have experienced any clogs in your p.v/c from your tea mix? Dint see a filtration system at all except for on the pump.
Depends on which state you live in. Mostly western states which is interesting considering how liberal they typically are.
Yes, this turned out to be a very expensive project. I got most of the barrels for no cost - but I did have to purchase about four or five of them. Then you have the 4x4 posts, the lag screws, and 2x6 boards that the barrels sit on top of - plus all of the concrete. This system first started with only four barrels - so it took a few modifications. But, if I made the system this way to begin with, the lumber, concrete, and barrels would have cost about $200 total.
Its VERY real....People have already been arrested for it. Its not illegal everywhere yet thankfully.
@tucsonpersonified
Yes, I have had some of that problem before - with algae. I have to just hook it up the lines to water from the house - which is pressurized - and it took care of it.
@Torontomato
Absolutely! With the thousands of pounds of weight in water on this, you must have the posts dug at least two feet deep.
1/16-inch drill bit was used on the PVC pipe out to the garden.
Good job.
Question-do you live in the country or the suburbs?
Cause you have a lot of rain barrels and do your neighbors or city authority have a problem with it?
Also, is it a crime to collect that much rain water without getting a visit from the police?
VERY COOL
not bad i dont like the fact you have to pump the tea back up i thank it should be rain water compost tea and a drip line under the soil with a time clock and sprinkle valve but thats me
@samohtzoo
Yes, that is one thing that I absolutely had to do. Everything is closed up to prevent mosquitoes from getting in.
Have you had problems with the exposed pvc breaking down, due to sunlight?
Hasn't been any new update to this system. Everything is still as it was when the video was taken almost a year ago.
@me1assassin
I don't use that because the rain barrels do not have enough pressure to push through the rubber hose.
@trje246 i've found them at a recycler for metal, metal and plastic drums
Barrels came from places that had windshield wiper fluid or corn syrup.
Gary Harrington,of Jackson County Oregon who owns a 170 acres property was collecting rain water, i don't know how the local authority found out but he was arrested and spent 30 days in jail and paid $1,500 in fine to the city. That was in 2012.
Oak Park, Michigan, Jason and Julie Bass were charged with a misdemeanor for planting a vegetable garden on their yard, this happened back in 2011, they were scheduled to go to court, if found guilty, they could face up 3 months in jail.
@vormwmik54
The PVC pipe was a better solution in this case. Garden hose is actually more expensive - because a 10-foot section of PVC was less than $1 each. 50 feet of garden hose is more than $5. Using garden hose would have also made it harder to drill small holes in and can kink up - whereas PVC pipe is easy to drill holes in, connect together, and it is rigid so it will never kink or collapse.
can anyone shed any light on where to find these barrels? like a business/companies that uses them for example...
This really isn't Compost Tea that you are making, but Leachate. Big difference.
awsome!!!!
is that just regular white lumber making the rack? nothing treated?
curious how does your system handle in winter when everything freezes
were the barrels free?
Do you find your pvc wholes get clogged up?
white PVC is not "rated" for outdoor use. UV rays will weaken it over time and it will crack rendering your irrigation system useless. You should paint that line.
what size holes did you drill in the drip lines to get that flow to your plants?
do you have a problem with the compost plugging up the pipe when pumping it up to the main line?
why barrels instead of IBC totes?
Never heard of such a thing....
@123SGTTOPDAWG345
Still have tomatoes and lettuce in the ground - almost got a freeze a few days ago but no damage.
Rain water good, city water bad
All treated lumber.
were did you get the barrels
it is illegal to collect rain water then sell it, not to collect it. it may be contaminated by bird poop or stuff on the roof. hope this helped :)
So your saying the motor is inside the rain barrel?
+kthomp55 Correct. It is a submersible pump.