Drip irrigation is one of the most sophisticated systems currently in existence for agriculture. All of us who have a garden or home garden want it to flourish in good conditions. Therefore, we can design a home drip irrigation quite effectively. It is one of the most efficient irrigation systems that exists and can be manufactured at home with materials that we do not normally use.
In this article we are going to tell you how you should build your own home drip irrigation and what its advantages are.
Advantages of drip irrigation
We are going to see one by one all the advantages of drip irrigation:
- Efficiency: water evaporation, surface runoff and deep percolation are reduced and eliminated if we use a drip irrigation system. And it is that if it is well designed, managed and maintained it has a 95% efficiency. In addition, it helps to apply small amounts of irrigation that can allow more efficient decisions about production.
- Crop season: in widely spaced crops there is a smaller fraction of soil volume that can be moistened to reduce unnecessary water losses when irrigated.
- Avoid deep percolation of water and nutrients: When we water drop by drop, the nutrients are not leached into the deeper layers. This is of vital importance if we want to keep our soils and crops healthier.
- Greater uniformity in the application of water: with drip irrigation we improve the uniformity of all irrigation and can result in better control of water, nutrients and mineral salts.
- Increase production: There are various beneficial systems that help increase production and stabilize crops in the face of different climatic conditions.
- Improves plant health: Thanks to this type of irrigation, there are fewer fungal-related diseases that occur due to drier crops.
- Improvement in the management of fertilizers and pesticides: This affects us too much if we want to have an urban home garden with little or no application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
- Better weed control: Drip irrigation helps reduce weed germination and growth because the water is focused on the crops. It also helps to significantly reduce all weed control efforts.
- It allows to create a double crop: Thanks to this home drip irrigation system, it will allow the sowing of a second crop and improves production possibilities.
- Automation: irrigation can be automated to be less aware of the harvest.
- Energy saving: Any water savings will also cut down on any energy cost.
- Longevity: Let's not forget that a home or drip irrigation system can have a long life if designed properly.
Home drip irrigation systems
Surely every day we dispose of a large number of plastic bottles that no longer have a use. These bottles can be used to make a very simple homemade drip irrigation system. We only need a bottle as big as possible so that it has higher capacity, a sharp object, and thin cords or tubes. With this material you will have everything you need to be able to make your home drip irrigation system.
Let's see what are the different variants that exist:
Bottles with hole
It is about making holes in the lid of the bottle by cutting out its lower part and inserting it upside down into the ground, close by. We must also connect a hose a type with low water pressure. It is a quite practical and useful system, especially if you are going to be away from home for a long time.
PVC tube or cord on the cap
We can also design a homemade drip irrigation system by making a hole in the cap and inserting a cord to fill the water bottle. It is a fairly optimal system that will help us save a large amount of water since it makes the roots absorb the water more slowly.
Bottle in the dirt without a cap
It is one of the simplest and most effective methods. We just have to make small holes in the bottle, remove the cap and put it on the ground vertically. Thanks to this, we can get the bottle of water and wait here little by little to water our crops. It is a variant of a home drip irrigation system that is quite interesting to use in gardens and in the soil of the home garden.
Solar Home Drip Irrigation
This system is somewhat more sophisticated and we are going to use the energy of the sun for it. It is quite easy to manufacture and allows us to save a great deal of water. To do this, we must use two bottles of water, a large one with a capacity of 5 liters or more and a smaller one that can be 2 liters. We are going to go step by step describing everything you must do to create this homemade drip irrigation:
- We take the large bottle and cut it at the base, while the small one is cut in half.
- The lower part of the small bottle is what is used to place directly on the ground. The large one will be placed on top in such a way that, when you open the cap of the large bottle, the water is fed on the small one.
- Both bottles are going to be placed next to the plant that we want to water. The distance should not be too great so that no type of runoff remains. The disadvantage of this type of home drip irrigation system is that they are not efficient if the soil has slopes.
- The system uses energy from the sun to evaporate the water and direct it to where we are most interested. When the sun's rays are directed towards the bottle system, the air temperature rises, causing the water to evaporate. Subsequently, the air inside the bottles will saturate with moisture and the water will condense on the walls of the bottles. As we know, the water droplets get bigger and bigger in areas where there is continuous evaporation. As they get bigger, they weigh more and end up sliding down the walls of the bottles until they end up spreading the earth around them.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about how to create a home drip irrigation system.