Drip irrigation system

For the seventh season now I have been observing how many agricultural enterprises confusedrip irrigationwith conventional hose irrigation - they say, 'a drop is a drop'. And then they wonder why, with the same water consumption, their neighbor’s tomatoes are juicier. In reality, the key difference is not the savings, but the management of root zone moisture. I remember how in 2019, near Astrakhan, I had to redo a system where drip tapes were placed directly on the straw - the result was predictable: blockages, uneven watering and 30% crop loss.

Where design errors are born

Most often, failures occur at the pressure calculation stage. Last year I advised farmers in the Rostov region - they bought expensive Israeli drippers, but forgot about the gearboxes. Result: the first twenty meters of the bed turned into a swamp, the rest remained dry. By the way, it was then that I first tried equipment fromShandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology Co.,Ltd— their multi-stage filters saved the situation with hard water from the well.

Another nuance that is rarely taken into account: vibration from pumps. In greenhouses with a metal frame, this becomes a problem - the connecting fittings gradually become loose. You have to add flexible hangers, but not all manufacturers provide this. In the catalog https://www.lyzhihuinongye.ru I saw an interesting solution with shock-absorbing clips, but have not tested it yet.

The most annoying thing is when they skimp on pressure gauges. Without constant pressure monitoring, even a perfectly installeddrip irrigation systemstarts to fail after 2-3 weeks. Tested in a vineyard in Crimea: at first they thought it was soil salinity, but it turned out that pressure surges of 0.3 bar are already critical for drippers with a labyrinthine channel.

Water treatment pitfalls

Iron in water is a different story. Standard mesh filters do not work here; aeration is needed. One day we had to dismantle the entire system on a farm near Krasnodar due to bacterial mucous deposits. We had to install settling tanks with UV lamps - the cost increased by 40%, but there is no alternative.

I had an interesting experience with sand filters. They are often installed 'just in case', but at hardness levels above 6 mEq/L they become useless. It is better to combine with disk ones - as in the sets from Shandong Lingyao. By the way, their automatic flushing valves really save time - for 50 hectares you save 2 hours a day on maintenance alone.

I'm currently experimenting with pressure compensated drip lines. Unexpectedly, it turned out that on slopes above 5° they behave unstably - it is necessary to add additional pressure-reducing valves every 30 meters. Expensive, but cheaper than redoing the entire site.

Automation: necessity or luxury

I still see the opinion that controllers are overkill. But using the example of a potato field in the Voronezh region: manual control gave fluctuations in soil moisture up to 25%, and with automation fromsmart agriculturemanaged to retain 7%. The difference in yield is 17 c/ha, which paid for the equipment within the season.

By the way, about payback. I saw the fastest return on investment on strawberry plantations - 8 months. There, drip irrigation with fertilizing made it possible to increase the collection cycle to 5 months instead of 3. They used fertigation technology from Chinese colleagues - they have a well-developed dosing logic.

An important point: not all crops tolerate constant drip moisture well. For garlic, for example, we had to develop a cyclic regime - 2 days of watering, 3 days of drying. Without this, the bottom began to rot. Moreover, standard programs in controllers do not always take this into account.

Installation tricks that are not written about in the instructions

When laying tapes in open ground, I always add a margin of 3-5% along the length - after the first watering, shrinkage occurs. Particularly important for sandy soils. Two years ago, because of this, I had to buy additional connectors at the height of the season - now I always bring them with a reserve.

Few people check the chemical compatibility of fertilizers with belt material. Phosphorus fertilizers can destroy some polymers - I have seen how the tape became brittle over the course of a season. Now, before purchasing, I always test samples in solution for a week.

Winter storage is a separate headache. After frosts below -25°C, even high-quality HDPE pipes lose their elasticity. We found a way out: we drain the water by blowing air, but not with a compressor, but with a hand pump - so as not to damage the internal membranes of the droppers.

Prospects and limitations of technology

We are currently actively testing systems with soil moisture sensors. Unexpected problem: plant roots create local zones of different absorbency. It is necessary to calibrate sensors for each crop separately - there are no universal solutions yet.

An interesting direction is drip irrigation for trellis crops. Here standard schemes do not work due to the vertical distribution of moisture. In an ornamental plant nursery near Sochi, it was necessary to develop a zoned system with different flow rates for the upper and lower tiers.

The main conclusion over the years: there are no universal solutions. Even a successful project in the Stavropol region can completely fail in the Leningrad region. Therefore, now I always start with soil analysis at 3-5 points of the site - this saves nerves and money later. And yes, ready-made kits from https://www.lyzhihuinongye.ru help out, but only as a basis for further adaptation to specific conditions.