Florida agronomist and certified crop adviser solving sports athletic field and other turfgrass problems by scientific diagnosis, involving irrigation uniformity, soil, water, and tissue sampling and testing, weed control, GPS mapping, and crop and landscape management plans to increase agricultural profits and reduce environmental impacts.
How do I test the water pressure going to my irrigation and water follow? Testing at the spigot wouldn’t be accurate as the spigot is connected to my house and likely after a regulator, and my irrigation line branches directly off the main water supply line before it comes to the house.
Thank you for being clear and explaining this subject. I have an automatic sprinkler system with 4 zones and my water source is ditch water and is supplied from my HOA. My annual HOA fees pay for the use of this ditch water. The HOA supplies ditch water to each property that is pressurized and each property has a brass shut-off valve to turn water off to the property. This brass shut-off valve is located in the front yard and in the corner of the property where the phone pedestal, cable pedestal, etc. are located. This brass shut-off valve is the point of where the responsibility of the HOA ends and the responsibility of the home owner begins. From this brass shut-off valve my water is carried into my property in a 1 1/4 inch PVC line and before my manifold I have a hose faucet followed by a brass gate valve and then the inline "Y" filter. On the discharge side of the filter this 1 1/4 inch PVC line is reduced to 1 inch and this goes into my manifold. All four valves are 1 inch and the water line coming out of each valve is 1 inch. Since there are numerous properties "sharing" this water at any given time the flow rate and pressure can fluctuate throughout the day. I have my timer set to start watering at 8 pm as this is the time when no one else near me is using water. My flow rate is 6 GPM and the pressure is 20 PSI. As a result, my sprinklers underperform and are anemic in their water distribution on the lawn. Each zone has between 6 and 8 sprinklers. I have determined that the piping in each zone is working properly and that there are no brakes in the piping. The 1 1/4 inch line may or may-not have a brake in the line. I have yet to determine what the status of this line is. My house is on a cul-de-sac and all my neighbors have thick lush green lawns. My lawn is not in the same league as my neighbors. Therefore, my problem seems to be with my system and not with the HOA water. The brass shut-off valve at the front of the property does open and close as I have tested this. This valve is open as far as it can open. Do you have any ideas on how to solve this issue?
I have a question concerning goosegrass. Is it necessary to remove the root system? Or will cutting off the grass stems prevent the grass from growing back?
Thank you for this video series. Along with other sources, I've learned a lot about sprinkler design. at 10:20 you talked about wind disturbing the spray and one thing I noticed in that part of the video was that the sprinklers seemed to be over pressure and causing more mist. Other videos I've seen say that it is better to adjust the pressure (or flow rate?) so the spray heads produce larger droplets that are less prone to wind disturbance. Supposedly there should be a point where you don't have mist and the throw distance is close to the maximum range of the nozzle.
I have an inquiry, not irrigation related but maybe someone might know. I’m trying to run water to two rooms that will service a washer and two sinks. I’m tapping off a 1/2 pvc that feeds a hose in the backyard. Will connecting from it to a 3/4 pipe make it more pressurized or allow or allow it to have better water flow or is it already restricted since it’s from a 1/2 pipe? It will only run about 25’ to the rooms.
I've been scouring RU-vid for helpful videos on how to assess a private well accurately / properly to determine how to design your irrigation system. Does anyone have suggestions or videos that explain the 101 of designing a system off a private well??
Hi, thanks for this its pretty usefull! I would like to evaluate the flow from my main line and its not easy to do without cutting it and test... Maybe you already makes the test and have an idea? Its a pex 3/4 (0.681 ID) and around 40 ft long. My static pressure is around 64 psi. For what I think according to tables is that I could have around 14 GPM with remaining 49 psi (12 ft/s and pressure drop of 35 psi/100ft) but not really sure on that! Do you have any ideas? Thanks again!
Curious - What is the pipe size, at the water source, where your shutoff valve is ( shutoff valve with the crescent wrench ) It looks like it is 1" pipe considering you have a 1 1/2" valve. Yes I saw your other videos too.
As I recall, the source pipe is 1" which means that the overall capacity is quite limited due to upstream friction loss at the source. The interplay of friction loss upstream vs. downstream (relative to the shutoff valve) explains why it was particularly necessary to adjust the shutoff valve to regulate the first pressure gauge to 30 psi for different flows, for this demonstration. There are real world situations where it is important to understand the capacity limitations of the water source.
The problem with this video is it might make people think that bigger pipe = more pressure. That's not really the case, and you do address that a bit. Bigger pipe just results in less loss of pressure. Most sprinklers will operate well on a wide range of pressures you would normally find at a home, from 30-80psi. Many can be adjusted manually. People have the misconception that if you go from a large pipe, say 4", down to a 1/2" sprinkler, you'll blow it up, because the pressure will be too high. That's not the case. As you said, you can only reduce pressure.
Just another way to look at goosegrass, or “cleaver” as it’s also known: it’s completely edible!..With many more benefits than commonly cultivated greens. Those in the know intentionally protect it and harvest it before the super spiky seeds appear. The young shoots are safe to eat and very tasty raw, and id the the more mature are bothersome on your tongue, steaming or stir frying for a few minutes is all you need for a very nutritious vegetable! I’m growing mine from seed I purchased on Etsy right now. A lovely green plant in my opinion;) I know it stocks to socks, but maybe moving a few sprigs to where you want them in your veg. garden will provide you with the just variety In greens you’d love! Break off a shoot next time you pull one and see if you like it. Google it..you’ll see that it’s not only safe and edible as our ancestors knew, but sought after by many today.
I have a 5/8`water meter and it's 50 feet to the house but I also have 100 feet of irrigation and the sprinkers barely work. Can you upside to 1" from a 5/8" meter or would that not work? Thanks for the great information 👍
with all due respect, unless you are Bezos or gates, regular folks cannot afford having 80 sprinklers in their houses, further more no water service provider can deliver the pressure nor the water flow to install these many sprinklers... in my house i can barely run 4 sprinklers at a time.
Ok, maybe you don't get it, so I will explain. He is using a larger example to make it more clear. You are right most people won't need 80 sprinklers. But that is not relevant to the video. It is easy to scale down, but harder to explain scaling up. He did mention zoning, which if you are unlucky and have such low pressure, is something you are going to have to do, we can handle 8 at a time, which requires 3 zones for us.
You solved it , and very easy to understand thank you , i was searching some simulation app , if you know any that can be understandable like you explained .
