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Fertilizing and Watering

Subject:  Gravity Feed

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Bubba Presley

Muddy Waters

I have a 300 gallon tank we want to raise it up to get enough pressure to run drip tape Irrigation.I believe that's 10lbs of pressure needed.How high goes it need to be?? we are thinking 10 feet??? Anybody know for sure??

4/17/2014 9:41:27 PM

Alabama Farmer

Alabama

I think it would be 10 psi/.433=23 vertical feet.

4/17/2014 10:16:19 PM

baitman

Central Illinois

I think drip tape will work with less pressure than its rated for, I guess you could try a 5LBS regulator on 10LBS tape to find out.

4/18/2014 7:55:07 AM

Bubba Presley

Muddy Waters

So 23 feet off the ground??lol Whos got a helicopter I can borrow?

4/18/2014 10:33:17 AM

Bubba Presley

Muddy Waters

You are correct Alabama farmer.I talked to Dan at Columbus Irrigation.You get 1lb of pressure for every 2 feet or so.He said it might work with 2 lbs of pressure on some drip tapes.

4/18/2014 12:23:41 PM

BillF

Buffalo, MN (Billsbigpumpkins@hotmail.com)

Handy, I have a 500 gal tank 8' feet of the ground and I ran soaker hoses with no problem. I didn't try it with drip but will this year but the tank will be 18ft above this garden. You must have a water pressure gauge in your plumbing tools. lol

4/18/2014 7:09:41 PM

Bubba Presley

Muddy Waters

Thanks Bill,No pressure gauge.Im a handyman not a air compressor lol If it doesnt workby gravity I have lots of pumps laying around.People give them to me just to clean out there basements & garages.

4/18/2014 8:35:18 PM

baitman

Central Illinois

I thought Handyhomegrown was famous for air pressure !

4/19/2014 8:01:05 AM

baitman

Central Illinois

maybe its gas

4/19/2014 8:01:30 AM

Tim Pennington (Uncle Dunkel)

Corbin, KY

I used 400 gallon tote 8 feet to the bottom of tank off ground ran drip lines worked great. Used one tank on two plants.
Only problem I ran into was timers needed pressure to work.
So I just used cheap minute timer. just figured how many gallons I wanted on patch and ran that much time on timer.

4/19/2014 9:56:26 AM

Mike F.

Hanson Ma

According to the boiler operator training I'm going through. A 27" column (Doesn't matter how wide it is) of water has 1 PSI at the bottom at atmospheric pressure. So you divide 1 PSI by 27 and it gives you a number of 0.037. If you multiply that number by 120 which is the inches in 10 feet you get 4.4 PSI. If any body has something different please correct me if This does look right. I'm going to see what I get because I have a hill about 5' higher than my patch. I'm going to stack 2 250 gallon totes on each other for 4 more feet and was going to try gravity. But expect to add a pump.

4/26/2014 5:38:15 PM

HankH

Partlow,Va

I did some research on this subject last year when building my setup and this is what I learned.

Water has a unit weight of 62.4 lbs/cubic foot. There are 7.48 gallons in a cubic foot with each gallon weighing approx. 8.34 lbs. So 7.48 X 8.34 = 62.4 lbs

One pound per square inch (psi) is approx. equal to each 2.31 feet of water height(column of water)no matter how big around the column is.

62.4 divided by 144(sq inches) = .433 psi for each foot.
One foot of water height is equal to .433 psi
The formula is:
P = .433 X height

I use 10 mil Aquatrax Drip Tape 12" spacing with .45 holes The sell a tape with .22 size holes but I don't think it would work under low pressure. My 55 gallon water barrels are 10' high to the bottom of the platform.

My average psi is .433 X 11.5'(1/2 way up the barrel)= 4.98 psi

That was plenty of pressure for the .45 holes to work properly. If I remember correctly it takes about 1 hour to water 2 plant sites(30 X 50) for 120 gallons total.

4/27/2014 12:54:08 PM

WiZZy

President - GPC

Thanks Hank!

4/28/2014 10:15:53 AM

mousey

Smithville, Tn

I have a 250 gal tank for 2 plants. It's about 4ft off the ground. I turn it on about 6:30am and it's almost empty by 6pm.

5/8/2014 3:24:38 PM

Total Posts: 14 Current Server Time: 3/29/2024 3:04:55 AM
 
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