Saturday, May 4, 2013

Handling The Details Of Virginia Irrigation

By Wanda Vaughn


With the current rate of population growth, irrigation assisted farming has been hailed as the best strategy that will provide food security in the future. Many people have used Virginia irrigation techniques to maintain their lawns or support a crop in the field during dry periods. A good feature of the supplies required to support watering projects is that the water does not need to be as pure as that recommended for domestic use.

Flood irrigation has low start up costs and is an attractive option for farmers planting paddy rice. In this technique, water is directed over a flat piece of land and allowed to flood it for a considerable length of time. It is suited for lands with low gradient and an adjacent supply of adequate water.its biggest disadvantage is the ability to alter the acidity of a given soil.

All surface water sources will have to be analyzed for contaminants due to their vulnerability to pollution. The choice of a particular method will also be influenced by the topography of the land, soil type and ambient temperature. For instance, overhead irrigation would expose the crop to fungal infections if employed in cold regions.

Drip irrigation is the least wasteful technique and is thus considered appropriate for projects in dry and semi arid areas. It is similar to the backyard approach in which a perforated bottle is filled with water and then pushed into the soil at the plant base. A large farm will be traversed with underground pipes perforated at strategic points to direct escaping water towards the roots of the plants.

Never hit the market in search of watering gear before preparing an elaborate list of all the required equipment. Simple lawn maintenance does not require heavy investment as a simple hose end sprinkler will be sufficient. If this idea is used, close monitoring is recommended to ensure that the sprinkler is moved to a new position to avoid over watering.

In other cases, the crop under consideration may be too delicate to allow the moving of irrigation gear. These situations will be best handled by automatic irrigation systems that will employ some form of microcontrollers. In many cases, the program used in the controller will need to be altered to account for variations in the prevailing weather conditions as the seasons change around the year.

Most equipment manufacturers recommend the use of an overhead reservoir to attain minimum pressure requirements for the system. The function of the pump will be to raise water from the ground source to the elevated tank for distribution. Pumps will have to be chosen based on the head requirements and the rated horsepower.

Among the most crucial fittings in a Virginia irrigation project are filters, valves, pipes, emitters and joiners. If you intend to have many branch outlets from the main feed, tee connectors must be included in your shopping list. Reducing joiners will come in handy when extending your range with smaller section pipes. To prolong the lifespan of an installed system do not ignore the need of filters.




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