I thought it might be a good idea to get a thread going specificly for guerrilla irrigation. Feel free to share experiences, ideas, etc. Lets have a good resource for newer and older growers.
Some of us are simply worried about summer droughts, and some of us depend entirely on water supplied artificially.
Here I'll start out with the basic outline for a basic gravity fed, resivour based system-
This crude paint picture shows the main components:
#1. Resivour: This could be a barrel, a garbage can, a rough tote, a water bed matress, or a water bladder.
#2. Hose or pipe: This could be Garden hoses, Poly pipe(the two best), PVC, Vinyl, etc.
#3. Water timer: Many brands exist, look near the garden hoses in your favorite Home center/dept. store/gardening store.
#4. Line spitters, Ts and Ys: Use these to split your lines off to multiple plants. If you are using garden hose, you'll use Ys or other multi spliters found near the garden hose dept.
If you are using a type of pipe, like poly, you will use Ts made for the specific type of pipe you are using.
#5. Valves: In a gravity fed system, it is important to make sure flow is even at each plant, a appropriate valve at the end of each plants line will give you control over the flow getting to each plant, allowing you to turn down or turn up the waterflow for each plant, until each recieves a roughly equal flow.
If you plan to leave the system to work on its own for weeks at a time, being able to know exactly how much water will be used will allow you to arrive to refill the rez before it runs out.
Also, I like the idea of using valves rather than emitters for controlling flow, emitters have a tendency to become plugged, especially when used with "wild water" collected in the bush. Valves are more ajustable, and are easily cleared if you find one plugging up.
System therory
Basicly, when the timers programming tells it to open the valve, water flows down from the rez to the rest of the system. As the sytem fills, water starts flowing from the valves at each plant. By ajusting the time the timer leaves the valve open, and by ajusting the valves at each plant, each plant will get its alloted ration of water.
Its best for the rez to be placed "uphill" from the plot, most water timers require at least a small amount of water pressure. My Gilmour timers require that the resivour is at least 2 feet higher than the timer to operate correctly, I have seen systems built online that had almost zero pressure, but I am not sure what brand of timer they used. At any rate, it is good for the rez to be as high above the grow as possible, but a huge difference in elevation is not a absolute requirement.
Building a rez
The most difficult part of building one of these systems is setting up a resivour that won't leak. Lots of cheep containers could make great resivours if they are properly modified.
The main thing you need to do is provide a way to tap water from the resivour. This involves drilling a hole in the wall of the container a couple inches from the bottom of the container, and using threaded parts with washers or heavy duty epoxies to attach a threaded pipe nipple to the resivour in such a way that it will not leak. Then you will be able to hook up the system.
Here are the basic parts and a diagram of what you need to do this, a trip to your local building supply and a little imagination should get you the parts you need. Its possible that your local plumbing supply might carry "Bulkhead addapters", these are plumbing parts specificly for this purpose, there should be no problem asking for one of these, but if you need a excuse, tell them you are building a rain barrel for catching water(basicly almost the same thing).
You could also just take a threaded pipe nipple, dill a hole just big enough to push it through the wall, and then just use a marine grade epoxy or cement/sealant to glue it in place. I don't think this is the best way, but it can work, just be carefull not to accidently step on or kick it, you could loose all your water fast.
Here is a example of a homemade guerrilla rez that I made:[/red]
Here we have a 50 gallon rough tote-
And here are some plumbing parts picked up at the local home improvement super store-
From left to right: 1/2" faucet, fender washer 1/2" Inside diameter, 1/2" threaded PVC addapter(used to addapt from glued PVC to threaded pipe), and two rubber washers that fit the threaded PVC part.
I cut a 1/2" hole near the bottom of the tote on the end, I put the fender washer and one of the rubber washers onto the threaded end of the PVC part, and put the assembly through the hole frm the inside of the tote.
Now I placed the other rubber washer onto the threaded PVC part sticking through the wall of the tote, then I screwed the faucet onto the part and using wrenches I carefully tightened everything nice and secure.
Almost finished!
I drilled some holes throgh the lid and lip of the tote, and installed some bolts, this will help keep larger animals from getting into the rez, and also helps the rez keep its shape while filling.
I also cut a hole just large enough for a garden hose for filling, this hole will be covered when not in use.
It would be ideal for this rez to be at least partially burried to help support the sides of the tote when filled, although I have never had a tote split under the weight of the water it contains.
Some of us are simply worried about summer droughts, and some of us depend entirely on water supplied artificially.
Here I'll start out with the basic outline for a basic gravity fed, resivour based system-
This crude paint picture shows the main components:
#1. Resivour: This could be a barrel, a garbage can, a rough tote, a water bed matress, or a water bladder.
#2. Hose or pipe: This could be Garden hoses, Poly pipe(the two best), PVC, Vinyl, etc.
#3. Water timer: Many brands exist, look near the garden hoses in your favorite Home center/dept. store/gardening store.
#4. Line spitters, Ts and Ys: Use these to split your lines off to multiple plants. If you are using garden hose, you'll use Ys or other multi spliters found near the garden hose dept.
If you are using a type of pipe, like poly, you will use Ts made for the specific type of pipe you are using.
#5. Valves: In a gravity fed system, it is important to make sure flow is even at each plant, a appropriate valve at the end of each plants line will give you control over the flow getting to each plant, allowing you to turn down or turn up the waterflow for each plant, until each recieves a roughly equal flow.
If you plan to leave the system to work on its own for weeks at a time, being able to know exactly how much water will be used will allow you to arrive to refill the rez before it runs out.
Also, I like the idea of using valves rather than emitters for controlling flow, emitters have a tendency to become plugged, especially when used with "wild water" collected in the bush. Valves are more ajustable, and are easily cleared if you find one plugging up.
System therory
Basicly, when the timers programming tells it to open the valve, water flows down from the rez to the rest of the system. As the sytem fills, water starts flowing from the valves at each plant. By ajusting the time the timer leaves the valve open, and by ajusting the valves at each plant, each plant will get its alloted ration of water.
Its best for the rez to be placed "uphill" from the plot, most water timers require at least a small amount of water pressure. My Gilmour timers require that the resivour is at least 2 feet higher than the timer to operate correctly, I have seen systems built online that had almost zero pressure, but I am not sure what brand of timer they used. At any rate, it is good for the rez to be as high above the grow as possible, but a huge difference in elevation is not a absolute requirement.
Building a rez
The most difficult part of building one of these systems is setting up a resivour that won't leak. Lots of cheep containers could make great resivours if they are properly modified.
The main thing you need to do is provide a way to tap water from the resivour. This involves drilling a hole in the wall of the container a couple inches from the bottom of the container, and using threaded parts with washers or heavy duty epoxies to attach a threaded pipe nipple to the resivour in such a way that it will not leak. Then you will be able to hook up the system.
Here are the basic parts and a diagram of what you need to do this, a trip to your local building supply and a little imagination should get you the parts you need. Its possible that your local plumbing supply might carry "Bulkhead addapters", these are plumbing parts specificly for this purpose, there should be no problem asking for one of these, but if you need a excuse, tell them you are building a rain barrel for catching water(basicly almost the same thing).
You could also just take a threaded pipe nipple, dill a hole just big enough to push it through the wall, and then just use a marine grade epoxy or cement/sealant to glue it in place. I don't think this is the best way, but it can work, just be carefull not to accidently step on or kick it, you could loose all your water fast.
Here is a example of a homemade guerrilla rez that I made:[/red]
Here we have a 50 gallon rough tote-
And here are some plumbing parts picked up at the local home improvement super store-
From left to right: 1/2" faucet, fender washer 1/2" Inside diameter, 1/2" threaded PVC addapter(used to addapt from glued PVC to threaded pipe), and two rubber washers that fit the threaded PVC part.
I cut a 1/2" hole near the bottom of the tote on the end, I put the fender washer and one of the rubber washers onto the threaded end of the PVC part, and put the assembly through the hole frm the inside of the tote.
Now I placed the other rubber washer onto the threaded PVC part sticking through the wall of the tote, then I screwed the faucet onto the part and using wrenches I carefully tightened everything nice and secure.
Almost finished!
I drilled some holes throgh the lid and lip of the tote, and installed some bolts, this will help keep larger animals from getting into the rez, and also helps the rez keep its shape while filling.
I also cut a hole just large enough for a garden hose for filling, this hole will be covered when not in use.
It would be ideal for this rez to be at least partially burried to help support the sides of the tote when filled, although I have never had a tote split under the weight of the water it contains.