watering system recommendations

[dan.e]

hi everyone I am looking for a watering system for my trees and would love some advice on what setup to get ?

[shibui]

Maybe a bit more info on how many trees, area you need to cover, timers or manual activation, mains water or tank supply, basic or Rolls Royce setup.

All of those factors will affect the sort of system.

[MJL]

Hey Dan.e,

Not so much a recommendation more an aspiration .... your request reminded me of this set up.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=27074&p=267297&hili ... em#p267282

[SquatJar]

I use opensprinkler and couldn't be happier

[dan.e]

thanks everyone I have been looking at open sprinkler after a post about it on here but it looks just like a controller and I am unsure of what solenoids to get ,I have 20metre by 10metre area I'm on town water I am going to be working away this summer Monday to Friday so I need full automation and very dependable

[shibui]

Town water usually means good pressure so any valves will work.
Looks like Opensprinkller can manage any sort of valves -

What type of sprinkler valves can it work with?
AC-powered OpenSprinkler (including OSPi) works with standard 24V AC sprinkler valves. It’s compatible with existing 24V AC system, including pump start relays, wireless sensors that require 24V AC power.
DC-powered OpenSprinkler works with both 24V AC sprinkler valves as well as 12V DC (non-latching) valves. It comes with a universal (worldwide) power adapter, which is particularly useful for International customers. However, for certain 24V AC pump start relays and wireless sensors that require 24V AC power, you may need a separate 24V AC power supply.
Latch OpenSprinkler works DC latching solenoid valves only.

Most common (and cheaper) valves are 24V AC. Those are the ones you can find in any hardware/nursery watering section and are very relaible.
Low voltage latching valves are quite expensive but only needed where power supply is limited like battery powered controller. You should be able to use standard 24V AC valves off the shelf.

Do you already have pipe and sprays installed?

[dan.e]

hi neil I currently water by hand with a dramm wand so starting from scratch I have wanted to get a set up going but never got around to it thanks for your advice what sort of sprayers do you use

[Rory]

For me personally, I believe firmly in Murphy’s Law:
Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong.


For this reason I keep my watering system absolutely basic.
I think you’d be crazy to setup a complex, multi-connected water pipe system.

I now use a battery powered water timer connected to the hose, and connected at the other end with a very basic sprinkler head.
This way if there’s a power failure, it’s irrelevant.
The more connections, turns, split systems....the more that can go wrong. When I’m on holidays for weeks, and roughly 100 pre-Bonsai trees need watering, you just want to make sure they’re getting watered regularly, that’s it.

You have to factor in: power failures, things dropping on water pipes, something growing into and stopping the sprinkler head from turning, water getting turned off by council/tradies/thirsty passerby’s (this all has happened to me).

Keep it simple!

Don’t try to get fancy. Keep all your Bonsai in the one area if possible and put the sprinkler in the middle of them. Simple.
If you’ve been watering them properly throughout the year, you shouldn’t have a problem with slightly over-watering for a few weeks.

Preferably keep the timer away from the public so it can’t be turned off by someone passing by.
It just needs to run for an hour or so, every day or 2 days, depending on the season. So all you need is a system with the duration and the frequency switches. In my opinion anything else is too much of a risk.

Keep the hose on the ground if possible. I now avoid complex water pipe setups as too much can go wrong, because if one section breaks, you’re doomed. Anchor the sprinkler into the ground with lots of firm pegs so nothing is going to move or knock it over. Anchor the hose as well with pegs so if something trips on it, it won’t yank out the ends.

And most importantly.... test the system before every holiday.
I usually replace the battery every 6 months.

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[shibui]

I just use common off the shelf plastic or brass microsprays. All the ones i have tried seem to have some drier spots in the pattern so the spray pattern needs to overlap to get good coverage. Even then there is always some drier spots and some wetter. Just rearrange the pots so dry tolerant trees are in those drier spots.
Microsprays can be affected by wind so pots may not all get watered properly in strong windy conditions. Worth thinking about if you are in a windy location.
My sprays are on overhead lines so water sprays down onto the trees. I found that bench level sprays were not effective. As trees grow they block the spray pattern and trees behing did not get enough water. Dense leaf canopy can divert overhead water away from the pots but extra time seems to fix that.

Be aware that long pipe runs restrict water flow and pressure. Better to use 19mm pipe rather than the smaller 12mm. More than twice as much water flows through 19mm. Possibly even a 25mm main line tehn 19mm spray lines if your trees are further from a tap.
There is always a limit to how many sprays you can run off a single line. Do a flow test first. Install a length of pipe from the tap to where the water is needed then time how long to fill a 9l bucket or similar time V volume measure to determine l/min. Sprays are rated at different l/min so you can calculate how many sprays that line can manage. Always be conservative with the number of sprays because coverage drops off significantly as your spray use gets near the flow limit. Best to run extra lines rather than put more sprays on a single line.
I have about 10m of 19mm poly for each run with about 8-10 srays on each so I use 6 station timer to water my nursery area of about 12mx15m. Better water pressure would allow more on each line I think.
I have seen some systems that use drippers on the pots and that seems to work fine for them but I found they only water a small area and the rest of the pot stays dry.

[SquatJar]

As per some recommendations on here I use antelco CFd sprayers, they have a great even coverage. I normally get away with two per pot. For solenoids I just bought a reliable brand from the local irrigation store

[wrcmad]

thanks everyone I have been looking at open sprinkler after a post about it on here but it looks just like a controller and I am unsure of what solenoids to get ,I have 20metre by 10metre area I'm on town water I am going to be working away this summer Monday to Friday so I need full automation and very dependable

I have been running a Toro DDC 6 controller for years. It runs a 240VAC transformer power supply with a 9V backup battery - so no issues with blackouts. This controller can be had for $95 online:

Toro.jpg

For solenoids to pair with this controller, you can't go past the Antelco eZyvalve4 - an all in one 4-solenoid unit which makes set up a piece of cake. It can be had online for around $110:

Antelco.jpg

[dan.e]

thanks again everyone some great info

[sander043]

Hi Dan,

If you want to talk to a supplier about design, these guys are pro's and come highly recommended.

http://brooksnsw.com.au/

Cheers, Sander.

[Matthew]

System ive been using for 8 years. Been super reliable have only had to change one solenoid recently. 4 station system with battery backup if mains fail.

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[Ryceman3]

My system is probably somewhere between Matthew's above and wrcmad.
I use the same controller brand as wrcmad ... but the Toro DDC4, outdoor unit which is in the box below (it comes supplied in this) and it operates the 2 solenoids you see mounted to the right which water my 2 racks. Like the DDC6 it has a 9V back up battery so black outs are covered. I've had it running for a fair while now and I am finding it to be very reliable - never had an issue with function... probably shouldn't say that out loud (touch wood!).

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Before this I tried cheaper battery powered timer units connected directly to the tap, but was never confident in them being reliable as I had several fail within a month or so of using them. Can't recommend that avenue.