OK her goes. I really have enjoyed this dialogue.
We have about 2.5 acres of avocados about 240 trees. The previous owner had a water tank high enough on the hill to supply the water needs for his purpose without regard for the actual needs of the avocado trees and because he was getting resonable crops he didn't bother to modify the system. It consists of a bubbler head that projects about 2-3 ft of water and amounts to about 150 to 200 gals a month for each tree.
We now have a 10k water tank which is basically at the same level as our fields so we have a 2hp pressure pump to push the water to the trees. The well is supposed to give us 10 gpm but still needs some tweaking as we are only getting 5+ gpm.
After studying all the different sprinker heads we opted for the Dan 2001 PC which will put out about 12.5 gph (blue base/red spinner)across a wide range of pressures.
We chose this brand because of the pressure compensation which will help deliver equal amount of water regardless of the beginning or end of lateral verses pressure regulators on each of the laterals.
The current system has 6 valves and I am looking to make it 7 and reduce the number of trees on each lateral, giving each more water for a longer time and attempting to cover more of the drip line area.
I am changing the supply sizes to get more volume and reduce the flow and losses and providing adequate pressure to each of the heads
I know that this is still not enough water but with my constraints on water I need to make sure that the tank has enough water for all the trees. With the new sprinkler heads I hope to water 80 to 100 % of the canopy instead of the 4 to 8 sq ft. at the trunk of each tree. These are mature trees and 300 to 400 sq ft canopies.
This has been a good learning experience for my wife and I and we are constantly looking for better solutions to make our trees as happy as possible
Thanks again
