Pumpkin Drip Irrigation Layout Planning
| Pumpkin Patch Irrigation Planning Your Pumpkin Patch Drip Lines We will now use our water supply knowledge and apply it to a Drip Line layout. For this discussion we will assume a flow rate of 300 gph, and pressure of 50 PSI. Pumpkin Vines can grow up to 30 ft so a relatively large area should be set asid to grow pumpkins. That being said with trimming and guiding of Pumpkin Vines you can grow them in smaller areas. A good size area for a pumpkin irrigation system is 30 ft x 30 ft (10 m x 10 m) and this is what we will base our Drip Irrigation System on. We will also have 2 pumpkin areas to water. For this example each row will be 16" apart which will equate to 22 rows of 30 ft each. Each row will have 22 emitters also spaced 16" apart. Step 1: Calculate Number of Emitters and Water Needed - In this example we will have 484 Emitters for each pumpkin growing area (30 rows x 30 emitters each row), for a total of 968 emitters. Step 2: Calculate Water Use Per Row and Choose Emitter Flow Rate - Choosing an emitter flow rate is one of the most critical components for planning an effective Drip Irrigation System. The decision will determine the number of rows you can water at one time while also impacting the time it takes to effectively water the entire Pumpkin Patch. There are two factors to take into account when choosing an emitter. The two primary factor when choosing an emitter is water availability and time to water. In this example we have 484 plants per area to water and have 300 gph available. In this example the flow rate is a constraining factor in our decision as we cannot use 1 gph emitters for each area. When using emitters and blank tubing the lowest flow rate is 1/2 gph which is what we will use in this example. Our total flow requirements for each area using 1/2 gph emitters will be 242 gph which is within our 300 gph limit. If we are using drip emitter we can re-evaluate our flow needs as drip emitter tubing emitters are offered as low as .26 gph which can enable you to water more than one zone at the same time depending on the spacing of emitters used within the tubing. Step 3: Planning Your Zone Layout - When deciding on a zone layout for Drip Irrigation systems we always recommend to be conservative when planning your zone layout. Having more zones serves a few purposes; firstly it will ensure the zone has adaquate water supply to feed the emitters, and secondly provides more control over the entire system if for instance one zone has been harvested and needs to be shut off from the rest of the system. For this illustration we have 2 zones to accomodate our water restriction of 300 gph. Below is an illustration of the layout as well as a photo of the installation.
We will now look at the various connection options for installing your pumpkin irrigation system.
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