Porous Pipe Plot Irrigation
Find out how to irrigate your vegetable plot
Porous Pipe Plot Irrigation
grow your ownAs soon as you step up from growing a few tomatoes to managing a vegetable plot large enough to feed a family and more, irrigataion or watering becomes more and more important. A watering can or hosepipe just won't do the job.
Fortunately help is at hand in the form of leaky pipe and similar products. Rubber tyres are recycled and manufactured into a porous rubber hose. When connected to a domestic tap up to two litres of water per meter per hour of water drips out slowly watering your crops. Prices start at just under £1 per metre, and fittings are readily available for connection to a regular hose pipe as well as simple push together fittings to make T-junctions, elbow bends and everything else necessary to enable distribution of water exactly where you need it. This porous tube can be laid on the surfact where it is sheltered from the sun by the foliage of your crops, or just under the soil where it will water the crops optimally. With water meters becoming ever more common and the importance of saving water, these irrigation systems are a fantastic way of reducing your water bill, saving time, and saving water.
Watering a little and often with a porous pipe irrigation system applies water directly to the root system while protecting the structure of the soil. It also promotes downwards root growth which is very important. Price wise it's not as cheap as polythene trickle pipes, but in the long run it offers great savins when used in a semi-permanent or permanent position.
Other benefits of such an irrigation system are that water is sent where it is needed and therefore does not end up helping the spread of weeds across the whole plot. There is also a reduction in the risk of moulds and mildews which occur when hand watering splashes leaves.
Pictured above is an example of how you can use rain water collected elsewhere on your property to water your vegetables without wasting the treated drinking water from your tap. Rain water is much better for plants anyway, so this is an excellent way of helping your vegetables grow.
Article Published: 16:53, 5th Apr 2006
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