3 Irrigation Systems Every Small Vegetable Farm Needs (And Why).

Let me show you my new favorite irrigation system on the farm. Irrigation in the market garden. It's not just putting water, it's what kind of system you're using and why. And in this video, I'll be sharing with you three different systems for you to be optimally using your water on the farm. Okay, so when I started growing commercially, we were doing market gardening and that was a long time ago. And the big challenge back then was how to narrow, how to water narrow strips. Because that's really what we're doing. We're planting one, two, three, four beds. And when we're germinating crops, we need to have the soil moist all the time. And so when I started, this is really the only tool that we had to just water narrow strips. And I can't tell you how many of these I've busted and I've tried connecting them to, as we were growing, we were evolving our farming style and our beds are getting longer, just became really totally obsolete. Okay. And there's a reason for that. It's just not made for commercial market gardening. It's made for home gardeners. But the challenge is the same. So you see the setup of a market garden is we're working in 30 inch bed systems so that we can hop over them and we can plant into them. And all the tools that we use on the farm are standardized to 30 inch bed systems. The bed is also standardized in length. So all of our beds are the same size that in that way, all the material that we use on the farm, row covers, insect nets, black tarps, it's all the same size. But that's also the case most importantly for the irrigation systems that we use on the farm. We want to use the same systems throughout the whole market garden. So we have beds that are the same size and the beds are grouped into field blocks. Field blocks are groups of beds that can handle the different irrigation systems that we have. And we have three on the farm. And these are the three that I would recommend to you also. Okay, so before we go any further, let's just explain this farm. So this is a half acre market garden and it's serviced the farm to table restaurant that we have here at the Old Mill. And it consists of nine field blocks. And connecting all these field blocks are one main irrigation line that goes directly to the riverbed where there's a pump. So the pump pumps from the river. And then there's a one main line that goes all around every garden and every garden, they have two valves. Okay, so you see them here. These valves will allow me to water four, six, eight, or 10 beds. So 10 would be using both valves. And otherwise, four, six will be using one valve. Okay, so that's the logic here. And the other thing to say is that all our irrigation lines, I can move them. I can move them in the field blocks. So to water four, six, or 12, 10, 12 beds. And with the drip irrigation, it is irritation one. So with the drip, you can water how many beds you want. Okay, so that's the overall design. There's nothing fancy here, but it's something that can be modular. Okay, so it's not one fixed setup. It's a system that can adapt to the different crops that you're growing because that's really what is required in a market garden. Okay, guys, jumping in here. If you're new to this, and you want to have a good template, we've put up a complete irrigation guide that's going to show you all the details of how to design your own system on your farm. This is based on years of experience of my farm and also all the projects that have been a part of. It's not just a random collection of information. It's a complete guide. And it's a blueprint. And it's going to help you understand how and why design your own system. It's worth every penny. Check it out. The link is below. Okay, so the first system that we're talking about today is these wobblers. There, that's the commercial name. And these are low pressure watering head that water in circular pattern. Okay. And depending on the type of head that you put on these wobblers, it'll be more or less, but it's always the same thing. It's a circular pattern. And you connect the spacing between the two heads, so that you have uniformity in watering. This is the system that I use that delivers the most water. And we use it in crops that are established, and that require deep watering. Let's say it's not raining for a week or two weeks or three weeks. So it replaces if you want like rain water in my system. And we use these to water eight or whole field blocks of crops. Okay. So this is like not very specific. This is like overhead watering for whole field blocks. The wobblers, what's great about them is that they're cheap. They're easy to assemble. They're easy to move around. And, you know, you really never have any problems with them. To move them around, what you'll have is a male and a female. And then you can move this around wherever you want. And this is connected to the main valve that I just showed you. So these are flexibles. You plug them in. These are cam locks, firefighter hoses connector. And then once they're connected, boom, I start the valve and the water is going in. Moving them around is not complicated, but they're very much not useful when we're watering two, four beds. More narrow strips to germinate direct seeded crop, or when young transplants are going into the ground, which require a lot of water, again, but not having lots of beds to water. And also the wobblers, to have uniformity, because it's a circular pattern, you need to use a lot of, a lot of water will go in the path at the end of the, you see where I am here? Like, you know, water is going to come at the end of the hedgerow. So you're kind of wasting a lot of water that way. You're watering in places where you don't need it. And you still, it's still a very useful system because when it's time to water whole field blocks, it's just great. It's easy to set up. It goes fast and it does the job. But for everything else, when we're doing strips, we have another system that is much more useful in that way. So if you've been following this channel for a while, sometimes I get excited. I get excited with tools that change the game. And this one I think really does. So the first time I saw the Sumi Soakers, I was visiting my friend Jody Robach in New Zealand, and it really caught my eye because here comes a solution that is super simple, really easy to install, and it solves a problem for me. And that problem is, again, watering narrow strips with a lot of water in a short amount of time. Okay, so you see what I mean? Looks like a drip tape. But when I turn it on, it has a lot of small holes. And these holes will only water both ways. And since there's a lot of these holes, it creates this really uniform misting pattern. But it's not just misting, because it is, it's actually putting out a lot of water, more than we think. It's going to take, to bring a lot of moisture to these beds, it's going to take about 20 minutes, and then I'll have like a really nice watering here. So you see the pattern? I don't know if you can really see well on the camera, but this is really ideal for narrow strips that need to be, that need to germinate, when the soil needs to be really moist all the time, or when you've transplanted small crops. The fact that it's more of a misting pattern is really important, because when you're direct seeding crops, or transplanting crop, the goal is not to bring a lot of water down. What you want is the surface water to be moist and stay moist. So we'll come and we'll water 2, 3, 4 times a day for 10, 15 minutes. So we're bringing a lot of water in a very narrow strip, and we're not putting too much water. Okay, which can happen. If you're using big sprinklers to germinate your seedlings, well sometimes that's just too much water, and it won't, you won't have that great uniform germination. Or you'll have transplant that are flooded, which is what not what you want. So these sumi soakers, they're really amazing for that. There's different kind of sumi soakers. You have those that can water, you know, 6 feet, 8 feet, 12 feet, 15 feet wide. So you can have bigger tapes that will have a broader range, and that could be useful. But the problem with the soakers, and that's why the wobblers are still in my system, is that they're low. Okay, they're on the ground. And so if you have big crops and you're trying to put a lot of water on many, many beds, you know, it's just not ideal. Some growers, they raise them, but at that point for me, that's more work. I prefer to just put wobblers in. So I keep the sumi soakers for germination, or for young transplants, and again, for narrow strips. Super simple, works wonders, highly recommend it. And I forgot, but I've just got by mail another brand of sumi soaker which waters just one side. So you can lay it on the greenhouse or wherever, where the pattern is just watering one side, and that really could be super useful in the market garden. Okay, so the last system that we rely on on the farm here is drip irrigation. Drip was, when it was invented, I don't know, 20 years ago, like a major game changer. Because drip, what it is, is if you don't know, it's a plastic strip and it has holes, but unlike the sumi soakers where it sprays overhead, it just bottom waters. Okay, so it's one little drip at a time. And eventually water really percolates that way. So for any crops that have deep roots systems, where the roots are deep and they need to have access to water deeper, that's really awesome. And we use it here on the farm in the market garden for crops that are fruiting crops. So tomatoes, pepper, eggplants, zucchinis. What's great about them is that you can put them under landscape fabric and it really doesn't, it never waters the leaves. So in tomatoes, for example, that's really what you want because most of these nightshade plants are very susceptible to a lot of pathogens that can be really detrimental. Fungi disease, and that happens when the leaves are wet. So you want to avoid wetting the leaves and the drip does the job really well. Okay, so for all these fruiting crops, we use drip. And one of the things that most growers, a mistake that I see on most farms is that growers take it to the literal sense. Drip tape is meant to water the roots, but you're not growing in a hydroponic system. You're growing in an organic system where it's soil biology that is making all the nutrients in the soil available for your plants. What I'm trying to say here is that the drips, they're not meant to water just the roots, but to water the soil, to activate the biology in your soil. Okay, so on a 30-inch bed system, if you're trying to water the soil, you need four drips, four drips per bed because each droplet will make a round circle and you want all these round circles to connect so that you have even moisture throughout the whole bed. So the mistake is to think I'm bringing water just to the plant. That's, you're not growing hydroponically. You're growing organically. Your water, you're bringing water to the soil. You're keeping your soil moist and it's activating the biological activity so that your plant can access the fertility needs. So that's really the thing here. The thing to remember is that on a 30-inch bed system, it's four drips and you'll have valves and the valves will be there when you're transplanting young seedlings. Then, then you don't need the four drips to run. But as soon as the plant starts to be established and it's going to be having rooting systems that are going to go down, you're watering with the four drips per bed. Drip, the bummer is that you'll need to change them after a few years depending on the quality of the drips that you're using. But regardless of the quality, they tend to clog and you can't really clean them up. It's not practical and it's not economically feasible to do it. So after a few years, you're throwing them out. There's a few ways that you can reuse them. We use them, let's say, to anchor down tunnels. We use them for different things on the farm. But you know, regardless of that, some of them do end up in the landfill, which is a bummer. But it's really useful to save on water. It's a really practical way to bottom irrigate. And we have also a lot of tricks here in the market garden to use drip tapes efficiently without removing them when we're cultivating with some of our hoes that we've developed at the Growers & Co. 2 line. So that's irrigation. How lucky are we to have a market garden just beside a riverbed? It's amazing to be able to pump. We're obviously super blessed. I hope that you're not going through hard drought and you do have water in your market garden. I wish it for you. And if you want to learn how we set up the irrigation system here, you can check out that video. I hope you guys are doing well. I'll see you next time. J.M. out.