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Eugene, OR

Hi, Just a quick question for you. I was wondering what depth you set your t-tape at? I've been planning my irrigation system but I haven't been able to find any info on what depth would be best. How deep do the roots really go? I've been thinking about placing the t-tape at around a foot deep near the stump and around 5-6 inches further out.

If you want to see my plans and comment on them, <a href="http://webpages.charter.net/brianreid/diary.html">Click Here</a>

12/22/2003 9:21:28 PM

Eugene, OR

whoops, HTML won't work here I guess. Sorry

http://webpages.charter.net/brianreid/diary.html

Thanks for your time!

12/22/2003 9:22:30 PM

Montoursville, PA

Brian...We never got them in at the planned one foot debth. This proved to be a blessing. We hoed them in to about a debth of five six inches. At the end of the season the were unhooked from the "T's" to permit tilling and patch prep. for the cover crop.

We were all set up with water to the center of the header. Our tapes were every eighteen inches. It worked fine from a tower being gravity fed. Pix are in my diary if you care to look at them.

We will not go any deeper because that was fine. We could feed in 110 gal. of water in about an hour and a fifteen minutes without any problems. Can't tell you what the need may be because we had the wettest summer on record.

Improvements planned are to feed water from both ends of the header, add a couple of valves so we can meter water out ahead of the growing plants while keeping relatively dry in the open ground ahead of the growing vines. This will permit active hoeing and weeding as the plant moves into the various sections.

Going a foot deep will be OK but I see no need to go to that much work. Here we have freezing and thawing so it would work back to the surface in time anyway. This was a lesson learned because we could not get equipment in over our rain soaked and nearly flooded early spring grounds.

In the fall we pulled the tapes in about an hour using one helper. They will hoe back in and be hooked back up in maybe two hours. No big deal! We banged up one tape. That was an expense of maybe two bucks. Not to bad!

I checked the T-Tape closely at several points along the patch. There was no fertilizer residual build up that I could see. We did use good liquids from AGRO-K and Joel Holland. That may have been why we had no buildups.

12/22/2003 10:49:13 PM

Eugene, OR

Thanks again!

That's an excellent point regarding removing the t-tape for tilling at the end of the season. I don't mind a little extra work by going deeper if it's better for the plant. I've never grown an Atlantic Giant so I have no idea what the root structure looks like. The '04 season will really help me get the basics down.

I'm still researching fertilizers. I'm kind of leaning towards delivering Neptune's Harvest Fish/Seaweed via the t-tape but if I find a cheaper product that will work as well I may change my mind on that one. I don't want to use any chemicals or synthetic fertilizers so the costs go up for the natural products. I think the extra cost is well worth it when considering long term soil health.

This t-tape stuff is pretty impressive to me. The costs are hard to beat when compared to a basic drip system of the same size and you can't beat the flow rates possible at such a low head.

Thanks for sharing your experience with me! I can't wait for Spring.

Happy Holidays

Brian

12/22/2003 11:58:58 PM

mcminnville oregon

A TRENCHER SURE COMES IN HANDY FOR BURYING IRRAGATION!!!TO EXPENSIVE TO RENT JUST FOR THAT , BUT MAYBE JUSTIFIES THAT NEW WATER LINE. i LIKE TO TRENCH THE MAX 2' JUST TO LOOSEN SOIL!!! FILL TRENCHES BACK WITH FINE MIX ... I HAD ROOTS CLINGINNG TO MY PERF PIPE 12" UNNDER VINNNES!

12/23/2003 1:36:34 AM

Montoursville, PA

My trenchers work for second hand coffee grounds and crumbly other goodies converting, in process, leaves and manure. I try to keep six to ten employed in each slice of my garden 6" deep by 12" X 12". Actually I am pleased when I see four.

12/23/2003 7:44:15 PM