Bucket Drip Irrigation instructions
The bucket must be suspended at least l meter above the ground. A tube is connected to the dripline and the other end is placed in the bucket to siphon the water out. Assuming the bucket is 20 liters, fill it twice for each row of vegetables. The dripline can be moved to another row for irrigating. Each row of vegetables is irrigated every other day. Plant a row of vegetables on each side of the dripline and use 40 liters of water.
Bucket Kits
The key to the simple drip irrigation system that we use is the gravity fed "bucket kit". The bucket kit consists of four 8m lines [or two of 50 ft or one of 100’] of drip tape connected to a bucket suspended 1m above the vegetable bed. Water is poured into the bucket and is evenly distributed to 100 watering points. By filling the bucket twice a day, a small kitchen garden can be watered. Studies in Kenya have shown that two of these kits can provide the water needed to produce enough vegetables to feed a family of seven during the dry season. These bucket kits are available in most countries (US$15), save water, save labor, and are easy to use. Go to Chapinlivingwaters.org.
Using sleeves
Farmers in Honduras invented a VERY cheap drip irrigation system. They buy the regular black poly hose. Then they punch holes in it where they want them with a nail or ice pick. A hot nail is best. Then take short sections [5 inches] of the same hose, cut it lengthwise to form a sleeve, and place a sleeve over each hole. This sleeve applies pressure to the hole, only letting a little water out, like a drip. This technology is quite cheap, VERY simple to do. Maintenance is also simple, because if a hole plugs up, you can often unplug it merely by taking the sleeve off and then replacing it.
Using screws
Farmers in Nicaragua are using cheap round tubing and wood screws. If drip tape is unavailable, this is a great alternative. We tried it with great success. The screw is inserted completely into the tubing at each planting location so that it protrudes through the opposite wall. It is then backed off to allow water to drip through that side. The flow is set by screwing it in or out as needed. This even allows for variations in pressure due to terrain.
Pin holes for drip
I am wondering if a dripline could be made by using a hot pin or very small hot nail, etc. to punch holes in the poly tubing. I mean really tiny holes.
DIY drip kit
Roger Pigott [San Diego workshop] decided to use two bucket drip systems on a bed in the garden but he did not want to siphon the water. Kits from Echonet.org are $25 each. He went to the hardware store and purchased: 100' of ½" black poly tubing; a post to hang buckets on; a faucet rosette washer and nut; ¾" ring washers; ¾" swivel tubing adapter; union - ¾" pipe threads and garden hose threads. One for each bucket. He drilled a 3/4 inch hole in the bottom of the buckets and installed the fittings. He then connected the tubing from the buckets to a header. He has five driplines connected to the header using tees and ells. He used wood screws for the drip outlets. There is about 60' of dripline. He planted seed in the five rows and laid the dripline over the seed. Very original thinking!
Buy enough hose to connect the drip line to the top of the bucket to siphon out the water. It takes about 1-2 hours for the bucket to empty. The dripline can be moved to another row of vegetables or plant a row of vegetables on each side of the dripline. Use more water. If one is willing to carry the water, one line will irrigate several rows during the day.
Plant green manure/cover crops to cut and leave on top of the soil to improve the soil. This is a MUST. Also, can be intercropped with the food crop.
Ken Hargesheimer
[email protected]
0-tillage: halting soil erosion
No technique yet devised by man has been anywhere near as effective at halting soil erosion and making food production truly sustainable as 0-tillage (Baker)
1. Restore the soil to its natural health. Contamination: inorganic pesticides, insecticides & fertilizers.
2. Maintain the healthy soil. Healthy soil produces healthy crops with highest yields and prevents most disease, pest, weed and erosion problems.
3. Increase the soil’s organic matter every year.
4. Little or no external inputs [It is not necessary to buy anything, from anybody.].
5. Leave crop residue on top of soil. No burning. You are burning up fertilizer. Do not plow it into the soil.
6. Plant green manure/cover crops to increase the soil organic matter. Seeds are available in every country.
7. Plant the new crop in the crop residue by opening up a row or a place for the seed.
8. Plant every field every year [no fallow land].
9. 0-tillage: no plowing, no digging, no cultivating. No hard physical labor required so children and the elderly can farm easily. After two or three years the yields can double while reducing the labor by half compared to traditional farming. Farmers farm ten acres alone using hand tools only [Honduras].
10. Tree crops: fruit, nuts, coffee [shade-grown], etc. Use perennial cover crops.
11. Permanent paths [walking].
12. Permanent beds. They were used 2000 BC in Guatemala, Mexico and many other coun-tries. 15-25% of the land is in paths and that saves 15-25% of the seed, water and labor but yields will be higher.
13. Hand tools: machete, weed cutter, seeding hoe. Local blacksmith should make them.
14. Soil always covered. Never leave the soil bare.
15. No compost making. Use the organic matter for mulch. If there is an excess, pile it up and use later.
16. Vermiculture: Not necessary; too much labor. Do it in the soil in the fields.
17. SRI - system of rice intensification. Double yields, reduces water requirements by 50% and reduces labor.
18. SRI for other crops: sugar cane, finger millet, cotton, wheat, mustard.
19. Bucket drip irrigation should be used during the dry season and in areas of low rainfall: Imported bucket drip kits are US$15. A bucket drip line can be made locally from poly tubing [US$3, Nicaragua]. One will irrigate a row of crops 33 meters long using only 20 liters of water per day. A dripline can be moved to irrigate several rows per day. Water can be from a stream, pond or well. A drip kit returns $20 per month to the farmer [FAO study].
When Soil is Plowed
by Ken Hargesheimer [email protected]
Dr. Elaine Ingham, describes an undisturbed grassland—where a wide diversity of plants grow, their roots mingling with a wide diversity of soil organisms—and how it changes when it is plowed. [The same is true of a jungle, rainforest, forest, etc.]
A typical teaspoon of native grassland soil contains between 600 million and 800 million individual bacteria that are members of perhaps 10,000 species. Several miles of fungi are in that teaspoon of soil, as well as 10,000 individual protozoa. There are 20 to 30 beneficial nematodes from as many as 100 species. Root-feeding nematodes are quite scarce in truly healthy soils. They are present, but in numbers so low that it is rare to find them.
After only one plowing, a few species of bacteria and fungi disappear because the food they need is no longer put back in the system. But for the most part, all the suppressive organisms, all the nutrient cyclers, all the decomposers, all the soil organisms that rebuild good soil structure are still present and trying to do their jobs.
But tillage continues to deplete soil organic matter and kill fungi. The larger predators are crushed, their homes destroyed. The bacteria go through a bloom and blow off huge amounts of that savings-account organic matter. With continued tillage, the "policemen" (organisms) that compete with and inhibit disease are lost. The "architects" that build soil aggregates are lost. So are the "engineers"—the larger organisms that design and form the larger pores in soil. The predators that keep bacteria, fungi, and root-feeding organisms in check are lost. Disease suppression declines, soil structure erodes, and water infiltration decreases because mineral crusts form.
Dr. Elaine Ingham, BioCycle, December 1998. (From ATTRA News, July 06)
Proper soil preparation
From Malcolm
Malcolm kindly sent up the following information about how to do proper soil preparation.
The first thing you have to do is make sure you keep plenty of old newspaper at hand. If you do not have plenty of old newspapers, send the children out to various offices and homes and see if they can collect some.
Soil preparation:
1. Once the beds have been cleared, put the cleared weeds aside in a warm place and add some soil over them and add a little water.
2. If you have livestock around the school, please collect the droppings especially those of chickens. Mix these droppings with the soil and add on top of the beds. If you have goats and sheep, collect the marbles and throw over the soil. For cattle droppings, if it is fresh, mix it directly in with the soil. If dry, break up the droppings and then mix it in with the soil.
3. Take wood ash after a fire and lightly mix in with the soil. Use 5 kg of ash for every half-acre and spread over the soil while adding any of the items from above (old weeds or livestock droppings).
4. Water the soil. Cover the beds on the next day with 3-5 layers of wet newspaper. Then make holes at the required plant spacings and plant the seeds. Add stone weights or timber weights in the rows to prevent the newspaper from blowing away. I will suggest you use Ken's drip irrigation under the newspaper.
Speeding up the germination process
Malcolm kindly sent up the following information about how to divide how to speed the germination process.
To speed the germination process, soak a paper towel or a cloth in water. Then put the seeds in water for 1 hour and then onto the paper towel or cloth and wrap and keep in a warm place but make sure it stays damp.
Cabbage or kale: overnight and in the morning plant as normal. If there are shoots visible, handle with care and plant carefully.
Eggplant and Pepper: 1 day or until you see the seeds starting to bloat up and plant as normal
Tomato: overnight and in the morning plant as normal. If there are shoots visible, handle with care and plant carefully.
Swiss chard, green beans or okra you can just soak them for 6 hours and then plant as normal.
Setting up and planting the seedlings
From Malcolm
Malcolm kindly sent up the following information about how to divide up our 1/2 acre garden lot and how to plant the seedlings.
Start with this first:
Divide the plot like this: 400 sq m for Swiss chard, eggplant and green peppers, cabbages and green beans or okra.
On the outsides of each bed on the north side: plant tomato plants and on both of the two sides, plant marigolds as a natural insect repeller.
In between the cabbage seedlings: plant a radish crop, which will act as a natural insect repeller. In between the rows of spinach: plant some garlic or spring onions to also act as a natural insect repeller.
For the eggplant you will plant as follows:
2 eggplants in a row with a space of 40 cm from stalk to stalk and then a 50 cm space. From this 50 cm space plant 2 green pepper plants at 35 cm from the edge of the 50 cm mark and then again at 70 cm from the edge of 50 cm mark. Then leave another 50 cm space and repeat the process with eggplants, then green pepper till you reach the end of the bed. See photo.
If you cannot get cabbage, then use kale.
