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After last springs injury and the resulting 3 month "vacation" the trees were not cared for and growth was poor. Our soil here, if you can call it soil is basically just fine white sand, (picture the stuff in an hourglass) and while the figs grow great in it there are not a lot of nutrients. Fertilizing here is not a bonus it is an absolute must for decent growth. Watering and fertilizing takes a lot of time.
The first step was to replace the water supply system which was adequate for a home but not for all the plants. I could only water one "zone" at a time. We are blessed with a never ending amount of water and in fact the water table is only 6 feet under my butt as I type this. The old 4" well had a 1" line in it and a 1/2 HP pump. Removed that 1" line and replaced it with a 2" line and added a 1 hp and a 2 hp pump in parallel. The 1 HP comes on for light duty or household use but if more water is needed the 2 HP pump comes on and both run together. With an open 2" outlet it is basically a fire hose
I still need to add a MUCH larger pressure tank but will get to that in time. The household water is completely isolated from the new system.
Stage two was adding the ability to inject fertilizer and acid directly in to the waterlines. In the past I have used venturis but anyone who has ever dealt with those knows they can be VERY annoying and they reduce the volume of water delivered. The solution was to add 3 Dosatron A30's. These are used units and thanks to the wasteful nature of our government and schools they choose to replace these $500 per unit devices instead of fix them, so they were free (thank you Hershell). What was the cost to fix them? $8.49 each and about 3 minutes per dosatron. Plus another $30 to replace a nipple on one because Hershell said be careful of that nipple they break easily.....then I broke it 3 hours later.
I still need to put the second barrel in which will be for the fig tree nutrients. Basically the two in series will feed the blueberry bushes acid and fertilizer and will draw from the same barrel, I needed two to have enough flow to do all 3 beds at the same time. They are controlled and actuated with a 1.5" solenoid you can see just past the dosatrons, unwired in the pic but now all wired in. From the fig dosatron the line leads to a 9 station controller and 8 solenoids (9th position is the BB solenoid) which is new and to two 4 station controllers so watering and fertilizing will all be automatic. Will now be able to water 3 zones simultaneous and could have been more than 3 but that would mean adding more smaller controllers and did not see the need to do more than 3 at a time. In the picture it was before the plumbing was finished of course. The project is far from completed as I have about 300 more feet of ditch to dig. Writing this is actually a way to procrastinate the ditch digging.
Behind that wall is the well and the pumps which will be a pump house when I find the time to complete it.
The first step was to replace the water supply system which was adequate for a home but not for all the plants. I could only water one "zone" at a time. We are blessed with a never ending amount of water and in fact the water table is only 6 feet under my butt as I type this. The old 4" well had a 1" line in it and a 1/2 HP pump. Removed that 1" line and replaced it with a 2" line and added a 1 hp and a 2 hp pump in parallel. The 1 HP comes on for light duty or household use but if more water is needed the 2 HP pump comes on and both run together. With an open 2" outlet it is basically a fire hose
I still need to add a MUCH larger pressure tank but will get to that in time. The household water is completely isolated from the new system.Stage two was adding the ability to inject fertilizer and acid directly in to the waterlines. In the past I have used venturis but anyone who has ever dealt with those knows they can be VERY annoying and they reduce the volume of water delivered. The solution was to add 3 Dosatron A30's. These are used units and thanks to the wasteful nature of our government and schools they choose to replace these $500 per unit devices instead of fix them, so they were free (thank you Hershell). What was the cost to fix them? $8.49 each and about 3 minutes per dosatron. Plus another $30 to replace a nipple on one because Hershell said be careful of that nipple they break easily.....then I broke it 3 hours later.
I still need to put the second barrel in which will be for the fig tree nutrients. Basically the two in series will feed the blueberry bushes acid and fertilizer and will draw from the same barrel, I needed two to have enough flow to do all 3 beds at the same time. They are controlled and actuated with a 1.5" solenoid you can see just past the dosatrons, unwired in the pic but now all wired in. From the fig dosatron the line leads to a 9 station controller and 8 solenoids (9th position is the BB solenoid) which is new and to two 4 station controllers so watering and fertilizing will all be automatic. Will now be able to water 3 zones simultaneous and could have been more than 3 but that would mean adding more smaller controllers and did not see the need to do more than 3 at a time. In the picture it was before the plumbing was finished of course. The project is far from completed as I have about 300 more feet of ditch to dig. Writing this is actually a way to procrastinate the ditch digging.
Behind that wall is the well and the pumps which will be a pump house when I find the time to complete it.
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