In My BackYard is a vegetable growing plot!
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In My BackYard is a vegetable growing plot! |
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The major result of the trial was as expected - the drip irrigated garden used about one third of the water that the overhead watered water used. There were several interesting unintended findings. Firstly, during periods of very hot weather, drip irrigation cannot deliver enough water to the whole plant and some overhead watering should be used during "heat waves". Secondly, the mulch in drip irrigated garden was far better protected and in turn provided a much better soil underneath the mulch. The overhead watering had all but broken the thick lucerne mulch layer by the end of the trial.
Below is a table of the water consumption for the period of the trial.
Even though the trial started mid-November, one of the water timers was faulty. The results really started on 30th November 2005. The results will be a little "wobbly" as the consumption builds up. I will produce the results in a weekly format once I trust the watering systems! On 14 December the other timer was faulty. I spoke to Pope and they recommended a pressure reducer above the timers as they are rated only for 600kpa. I set the drip timer to 90 minutes every 12 hours to let it catch up with the watering. On 28 December the overhead garden was looking better than the drip garden. The leaves on the tomatoes and beans were much more lush on the overhead garden. The beans on the drip garden had very yellow leaves. I will be attempting to address this. I have set the watering on the drip back to every 12 hours and will add some Seasol liquid fertiliser. On 11 January, the drip garden was looking a little better, but the overhead watered was still more lush. I have changed the results to reflect a week by week consumption. On Feb 8, the overhead garden is still looking much more lush than the drip. The soil in the drip garden is still moist but the plants, while not looking sick, are nowhere near as vibrant as the overhead watered plants. Feb 15, the drip garden is a good colour and some tomatoes are almost ripe but the overhead garden is still much more lush. Mar 1, the drip garden beans are a better colour, the tomatoes in both beds are being picked and the corns in the overhead bed is almost ready to be picked. I picked some corn - it tasted lovely! Mar 15 - the drip garden had a leak between the water meter and timer. At least double the water used - 1/2 was wasted. I picked a good collection of tomatoes. Mar 29 - the tomatoes are prolific on both plots. The beans and corn are drying for seed. Apr 5 - The trial ended. The final results are listed above. The tomatoes were still very heavily fruiting.
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