I put in a great number of trees in my first orchard section this year and now it’s time to learn how to put in drip irrigation! My property is an unusual shape with this being a triangular orchard on a very steep hill. Trees are all semi-dwarf (mostly apples) on a 15’ by 15’ staggered grid. I’d love to wean them off water eventually but our summers are dry so that’s not a given. I’m running an irrigation line up the hill with plans to use it on the next lot over eventually when I add more trees and animals over there. Since I’m not putting in something that matches the usual evenly-spaced orchard plans online, I’m looking for any feedback on things that should change before I start digging as I essentially have a blank canvas here. Also, is there anything you wish you’d done differently in your own irrigation setups?
Pics show current property setup and earlier topo map as well. Black dots are trees, light blue is existing water line, dark blue is planned irrigation line, green are hose bibs, and purple is drip line. Most of my drip lines options seem to max out at 200’ so I’ve spaced the bibs unevenly to accommodate the longer runs. I’ve already purchased and Eden hose timers and frost-proof yard hydrants I’m using elsewhere already but have yet to purchase the drip supplies as I believe I need to determine gallons per minute of final hose bibs for finalizing designs.
Thanks for any tips before I make rather permanent mistakes!
We have used drip on our orchard for a good while. Our well is 5 GPM and we have about 150 peach trees with two 1GPH emitters per tree on one zone. Also 2 zones of apple trees with about 400 trees each with a single 1 GPH emitter on each tree. Emitters are plugged into 1/2 poly hose with max length of about 400 feet. All controlled from individual PVC valves from a central point with screen filter, PRV and pressure gage. We like to manage the zones manually rather than with a timer. Typical water cycle is 12 hours once a week with low rainfall and 12 hours twice a week during a big drought. The plugin emitters work great for us but the research farm with peach trees have micro sprinklers but they are on very sandy soil. The micro sprinklers require about 5X more water than the 1 GPH emitters. The main line from the well to the irrigation head is about 500 feet of 1 1/4 PVC about a foot deep below ground.
Our first experience with drip irrigation was in 1982 and we have learned from our mistakes. Important to know that algae builds up over time where any PVC pipe is exposed to sunlight. The individual emitters can be removed and cleaned and have a useful life of about 15 years. Some folks prefer orchard tubing which includes internal emitters but I would expect it would clog with algae in our environment. We have also used 15 mil drip tape which lasts about 3 years.
A few thoughts that may help:
Need to know your max available water flow rate and pressure which determines everything else
Break area into smaller zones to keep flow rates under control
If you are using a household well your water pressure in your house may drop when you are running your irrigation, making it hard to shower or wash dishes
Would be easier if you could control everything from a single point
Cheap fertilizer injector would be nice addition.
Micro sprinklers may be a better choice for larger trees like yours
Berry Hill Irrigation or Greenhouse Megastore sell everything you need.
Edit: My original reply indicted the flow rate on the emitters was in gallons per minute (GPM) which was wrong!
The flow rate on all emitters is in gallons per hour (GPH). The flow rate on the well is GPM. Thanks to Browndrake for catching the error so quickly!
Second Edit. Just noticed the elevation change between the trees at the top and the trees at the bottom of the contour map. Some emitters have pressure compensation build in to help insure even water distribution. May be smart to include individual PRV on each zone to adjust for the elevation change. A good PRV is about $15 but you need to choose one that will kick in at a low flow rate.
