FishinRod, I been wanting to do the same thing, been hauling water from the pond with a tank and just watering fruit trees and blueberries with a garden hose, but was wondering if a person couldn't do some kind of drip tubing,
gehajake,
My drip irrigation system has been working almost flawlessly with clean source water.
I use the 1/2" poly drip irrigation tubing to run my lines. (.700 OD, 500' for $34 last year) Put it out in the sun the day before you plan on doing the installation job - you want it soft and pliable.
I can punch holes with the little tool and install two 4 GPH flag emitters at each tree in under 60 seconds.
The system components are actually designed to run at 25 psi.
Therefore, you must elevate your water supply tanks. I just built little stands about 5' tall from old 4x4s from a scrapped fence and placed them on the highest ground around each stand of trees. That is only 2.15 psi hydrostatic at the bottom of the tank - but it still works!
I have timed my tank flows and I de-rate the published emitter flow rates 70-90%. However, that doesn't matter, I just put more time on the battery operated flow valve.
The operating pressure is so low that you can't have a hump in your line where you go over a little rise of land. It will air lock your system. (You can open a connector there to purge the line and get it flowing, but I just avoid that situation in the design now.)
There are little ells and tee barb connectors that you can easily push in by hand. At my operating pressures they have never come apart or even leaked.
It definitely beats truck-watering 200 trees during a drought!
