• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

Fertigation with drip tape.

Silver_Surfer

Silver_Surfer

Fertigation begins with a fertilizer injector. Starting from the Y-adaptor at the faucet is a backflow preventer, a 25 PSI pressure regulator, a 150 mesh filter and finally the injector connected to a garden hose which is connected to...
Injector.jpg


the header pipe that feeds each row of drip tape. Every row has its own valve and the...
Header6-19-11.jpg


corn has a valve and tubing that leads to its own header for its drip tape as it is a very heavy user of both water and nutes.
CornHeader6-19-11.jpg


Garden side shot.
GardenSide6-19-11.jpg


Garden upper end. I used a hoe to create the raised rows, buried the drip tape a few inches and offset about 4 inches from the center, then dug a small trench along each side to hold the plastic mulch in place. The middles between the rows were then covered in landscape fabric and topped with wheat straw.
GardenUpper6-19-11.jpg


Garden lower end. The peppers were transplanted from 3 quart containers into the mulch by cutting an X into the plastic and then closing the X flaps back against the stem and weighting it in place with a little soil. The tomatoes were planted in the same manner, but way too late from tiny 2.5 inch pots.
GardenLower6-19-11.jpg
 
Fife Creek Cowhorn okra and four different types of pole beans. You can easily see how uniformly the okra is fed from the beginning to the end of this sloping garden by the drip tape. The drip tape clearly out performs the soaker hose I used last season in even distribution when used on a slope.
Okra-Beans6-19-11.jpg


Cantaloupe and Butternut squash planted about 10 days later than the other direct seeded plants.
Cantaloupe-Butternut6-19-11.jpg


Zucchini squash
Zuchinni6-19-11.jpg


Yellow crookneck squash. The beans, squash, okra, and cantaloupe were all direct seeded into the black plastic mulch by cutting a small X with a knife and pushing a seed about an inch deep into the soil.
YellowCrookneck6-19-11.jpg


The Silver Queen corn is the only thing in the garden that isn't mulched since it needs to be hilled at a later date after it reaches about knee high height. This burys its surface roots, smothers weeds and adds support to the stalks.
Corn6-19-11.jpg


Fertigation is pretty simple and the mulch keeps the hoe where I like it, in the garage.
 
Great design of the entire garden including the drip tape and fertigation peppers are going to be bountiful. I can only dream of having a pepper patch like yours right now. Thanks for showing this. :cool:
 
i tried that exact fertigator a year back. the ez flo 3/4 gallon correct? i couldnt get it to put out any significant amounts of fertilizer. the drippers only showed like 50ppm higher than the tap water.
im looking forward to how you do with that thing, i couldnt do much with it.
 
Thanks SS for sharing your beautiful garden and a very impressive irrigation setup. I love it so much I just placed an order for flat drip tubing and the fittings to boot. I've been racking my brains out trying to figure out the best way to do it. You gave me the nudge I needed to decide which system to go with. I put together an awesome pumping station yesterday, but couldn't settle on what to use with it…until I saw your setup. WOW!! It's a no brainer now!!
 
Pepper Ridge Farm said:
Great design of the entire garden including the drip tape and fertigation peppers are going to be bountiful. I can only dream of having a pepper patch like yours right now. Thanks for showing this. :cool:
Click to expand...
Thanks Cappy, you could do the same with some raised beds in your back yard. ;)

naganumbness said:
damn! you went hi-tech Robert! your garden looks incredible!
Click to expand...
Appreciated Ed, but I call it "lazy tech".
biggrinpimp.gif


queequeg152 said:
i tried that exact fertigator a year back. the ez flo 3/4 gallon correct? i couldnt get it to put out any significant amounts of fertilizer. the drippers only showed like 50ppm higher than the tap water.
im looking forward to how you do with that thing, i couldnt do much with it.
Click to expand...
Yes it's the 3 quart model, good for up to 5000 square feet.
This is the second one of these I've used over the years. The first one I purchased only cost $38.95, but that was several years ago. I haven't had any problems with them other than forgetting one year and leaving the first one outdoors overwinter and letting it freeze.
In order for these to work correctly you must have a minimum of 2 gallons per minute flowing through the system. Perhaps that was your problem?

SuperHot said:
Thanks SS for sharing your beautiful garden and a very impressive irrigation setup. I love it so much I just placed an order for flat drip tubing and the fittings to boot. I've been racking my brains out trying to figure out the best way to do it. You gave me the nudge I needed to decide which system to go with. I put together an awesome pumping station yesterday, but couldn't settle on what to use with it…until I saw you setup. WOW!! It's a no brainer now!!
Click to expand...
Thanks and the best of luck with your new fertigation system. It's really an easy and great way to garden.
 
SS, This is REALLY awesome.. I've stayed away from this topic because I don't want to go crazy and run my Credit Card thin but I just might have to for next year.. You should expect to hear from me more about this.. Sweet setup buddy... :dance:
 
SS, is 2 gallons per minute, correct? Thanks Mike


"In order for these to work correctly you must have a minimum of 2 gallons per minute flowing through the system."
 
Pepper Boys said:
SS, This is REALLY awesome.. I've stayed away from this topic because I don't want to go crazy and run my Credit Card thin but I just might have to for next year.. You should expect to hear from me more about this.. Sweet setup buddy... :dance:
Click to expand...
Thanks, but it's really not very expensive, especially when you realize how much time is saved over the course of a season.
Here's where I got the EZ-Flo 3/4 Gallon Fertilizer Applicator $51.95
It will last several years provided you don't leave it outside like I did and let it freeze. ;)
The drip tape comes in various thicknesses and the 15mm stuff will last 3 to 5 years and the header and connectors will last many years too. So after spreading the cost over several years it's pretty cheap.

Pepper Boys said:
P.s What is growing up the blue "fence"??
Click to expand...
Four different types of pole beans.

capsidadburn said:
SS, is 2 gallons per minute, correct? Thanks Mike
Click to expand...
The injector comes with 3 different flow restriction washers that is supposed to make the system work with less flow than 120 gallons per hour (2 gallons per minute), but I haven't ever used them. According to the manual if you have less than 2 gallons per minute flowing through your irrigation system there are the different colored washers you can install depending on the flow.
Red Flo-Disc - 7.5 to 30 gallons per hour
Black Flo-Disc - 30 to 60 gallons per hour
White Flo-Disc - 80 to 120 gallons per hour

If you use one of the flow restriction disc you need to premix your powdered fertilizer concentrate solution, but w/o the disc there is enough flow/agitation (2 gallons or more per minute) to just add the dry powder to the container ad it will mix itself and that's the way I do it.

2 gallons per minute isn't as much as you think. Fill a 5 gallon bucket and time it.
 
Oops... forgot to update this thread.

6-25-11
After 10 days The garden is showing some progress.
Garden6-25-11.jpg


Lower end shot.
GardenLower6-25-11.jpg


Peppers are starting to meet.
Garden2-6-25-11.jpg


Tomatoes are staring to crowd the peppers.
Garden3-6-25-11.jpg


Cantaloupe and Butternut squash
Cantaloupe-Butternut6-25-11.jpg


Okra and pole beans
Okra-Beans6-25-11.jpg


Squash
Squash6-25-11.jpg
 
very lush my friend...continued progress to you this season...
 
good progress, very soon you will be up to your ears with pods and veggies

Good reading on this thread too, fertigation seems to be the way to go.
 
Thanks fellas.

Here's a progress sequence over a 24 day period.

Garden 6-15-11
Garden6-15-11.jpg


Garden 6-19-11
GardenUpper6-19-11.jpg


Garden 6-25-11
Garden6-25-11.jpg


Garden 7-2-11
Garden1_7-2-11.jpg


Garden1 7-09-11
Garden1_7-09-11.jpg




I'm going to be overloaded with these Butternuts. It's setting some between pepper rows now.
Butternut7-09-11.jpg


The purple variety of pole beans is suckin' hind tit.
Garden2_7-09-11.jpg


Walk space is severely limited. 30" row spacing just isn't enough.
Next season it will be double rows on 5' centers.
Garden3_7-09-11.jpg


Coons are already starting to raid the corn.
Tried to give them some lead poisoning last night, but the sneaky masked bandits didn't show.
Garden4_7-09-11.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top