Construction of irrigation systems

When people talk about the construction of irrigation systems, they often think simply of pipes and sprinklers. But it’s like comparing a barn with a smart farm - technically, both have walls, but the efficiency differs significantly. Our company Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC closes this gap by combining design, equipment and installation into a single cycle. In short: we don’t just install pipes, but create a working irrigation ecosystem.

Why standard solutions don't work

Last year, the system was redesigned in the Krasnodar Territory - the previous contractors installed standard drip irrigation without taking into account the slope. Result: the upper hectares dried out, the lower hectares became swampy. We had to redraw the circuit, add remote-controlled valves and humidity sensors. This is a typical example where a formal approach toconstruction of irrigation systemsleads to higher operating costs.

Another point is filtering. They install expensive filters where sedimentation tanks can be used, or save on purification systems for water with a high iron content. In such cases, we first do a chemical analysis of the water, then select equipment. Sometimes a cascade of mesh filters is enough, but with a high organic content, disk systems with flushing are already needed.

I noticed that many customers demand the “most modern”, without taking into account the growing culture. A vineyard with row spacing of 3 meters and vegetables in closed ground require fundamentally different solutions. The important thing here is not to sell something expensive, but to choose a working one - sometimes good old drum sprinklers are more effective than drip tapes for certain crops.

Integrating water and fertilizer - more than just mixing

Our workshop in Shandong produces fertigation systems, which are often included as part of a complexconstruction of irrigation systems. But the point is not in tanks and pumps, but in exact proportions and synchronization with irrigation. Once we had to redo the system on a tomato farm - previous engineers installed injectors without taking into account the pH of the nutrient solution. The plants did not absorb phosphorus, although tests showed its presence in the water.

We are now implementing projects with remote control of valves - this is especially important for large farms. We recently launched a system in the Rostov region: an agronomist can regulate watering of different areas from his phone, based on weather station data. True, we had to tinker with setting the response thresholds - at first the sensors gave false alarms due to dew.

By the way, about weather stations - they are often underestimated. Standard practice is to place one per farm, but if the fields are low-lying and high-lying, the difference in temperature and humidity can be up to 30%. You have to either install several simple stations, or use models adjusted for terrain.

Features of construction in different regions

In the Stavropol region, for example, there are problems with wind erosion - conventional sprinklers give uneven distribution in strong winds. It was necessary to develop a system with low nozzles and increased pressure. But in Crimea, where the water has a high salt content, the main focus is on flushing the system and drip lines with compensated droppers.

A memorable case was in the Volgograd region - the customer insisted on using steel pipes instead of HDPE for highways. Two years later, leaks began due to corrosion. We had to dismantle and install polyethylene ones, but with additional protection from rodents - in that area mice even gnawed through thick-walled pipes.

Forconstruction of irrigation systemsin conditions of elevation changes, as in Altai, it’s a completely different story. There you cannot do without frequency converters and pressure regulators - conventional valves do not maintain stable pressure over a difference of 50 meters. Moreover, setting up such systems sometimes takes weeks - you need to empirically select parameters for each section.

Equipment that really works

There are dozens of items in our catalog at https://www.lyzhihuinongye.ru, but in practice, 80% of projects are assembled from 15-20 proven components. For example, for basic solutions we use filters with automatic washing - they are more expensive than manual ones, but save labor costs. Although for small greenhouses we sometimes recommend simple mesh filters - they are sufficient for drip irrigation with clean water.

The situation with remote control valves is interesting - many are afraid of the complexity of installation. In fact, modern models with radio modules can be installed in a couple of hours; the main thing is to correctly calculate the watering zones. We usually do a test run with water flow measurement - it often turns out that we need to reduce the number of sprinklers per line.

Pumping stations are a separate issue. A standard mistake is to install pumps with a power reserve 'just in case'. This leads not only to excessive energy consumption, but also to water hammer in the system. Now we are calculating equipment for specific parameters, and to compensate for peak loads we use hydraulic accumulators.

Projects that teach

I remember how three years ago we took onconstruction of an irrigation systemfor an intellectual agricultural park in the Moscow region. The customer wanted full automation, but did not take into account interruptions in the Internet in the area. We had to urgently modify the system with a local controller that saves data when the connection is lost. Now we always provide for autonomous operation.

Another lesson learned when working with steep slopes in Dagestan was that standard sprinklers created soil erosion. We have developed a pulse irrigation system with low water consumption but higher frequency of activation. The soil has time to absorb moisture and does not flow down the slope.

Now we are just finishing a project for a high-quality agricultural field in Tatarstan - there we combine drip irrigation with a system for introducing plant protection products. An interesting experience - we had to coordinate the pressure in different circuits so that there was no reverse flow. It seems they have found a solution through spring loaded dividing valves.

What's the result?

Construction of irrigation systems is always a compromise between cost, functionality and reliability. There are no ideal solutions for all cases; there are solutions that are adequate to specific conditions. We at Shandong Linyao Intelligent Agriculture Technology LLC are trying not just to sell equipment, but to create a system that will work for years without constant intervention.

By the way, we recently had to redo the system that our installers assembled two years ago - the customer changed the crop structure. This is normal practice - systems should have room for modernization. It is better to lay additional bends immediately than to cut the finished pipeline later.

If there is a main principle in our work, we first study the soil, water, crops and only then get down to design. Otherwise, it turns out like in that joke about the builders who forgot about the stairs to the second floor. Only in our case, instead of a ladder, there is a working irrigation system.