I am an IT guy trying to understand farming, this is my take on this topic and would like to know if i understand it right
Drip Irrigation:
People mostly prefer drip because of the minimal use of water. But not retaining any moisture in places between trees where there is no water supply on a drip irrigated land kill all the organic matter and eventually making that places not better enough for plant life in future
Sprinklers:
Though these use up more water, it provides moisture to most part of the land and help retain organic matter.
dear friend,Drip system is suitable for all most all the crops. Drippers should be provided basing on the requirement of the plant at differant distaces/differant discharge levels. The drippers will fullfill the plants requirement.One advantage is there,this system reduces the growth of weeds. The sprinklers also do ma better job but with certain restrictions.Since it sprinkles/spreads the water particles all around the land,the unwanted weeds will be develpped abnormally. Secondly certain crops like rose,capsicum etc will be affected with downy mildew,powdery mildew etc,as water particles fell on the leaf area.Also sprinklers are very good for crops like Anthurium,orchids etc.Thirdly micro organisms will develop near plant bottom and drip water also will fall abutting/closely near plants,and also the micro organisms act is required mostly near the plant,as macro and micro,nano fertilisers will be converted by them to available form to plants.Hence for a general farmer drip is best and for farmers who are experienced,both drip and sprinklers are good.
One might have observed plants that grew getting watered manually versus the plants that grew during rainy season. Rain water has some magic in it which no matter how often a plant is watered in a pot, can grow.
I feel it is similar with drip and sprinkler. As water gets through atmosphere, it gets oxygen and some other minerals dissolved in it. Sprinkling water creates an atmosphere around the farm. So, personally prefer sprinkler unless the kind of crop cannot withstand the falling water particles.
I have sandy soil:
Make test on your field. The draw back of sandy soil is water percolates on the place where drip is fallen rather than spreading.
One person known to me strugled and he mixed the soil with red soil and silt gradually the sand soil has turned good now.
My solution for this is
I am planning to use Jeevamritham with venturi? Is it feasile or will it clog drip?
Jeevamrith can be fed thru drip with prior filtering.
I am also planning for automatic sprinkling of pesticides ( Palekar’s agniastra, bramhastra, dasaparnakasahya)
Three disadvantages in this. During flowering season you cannot use sprinkler(yield decreases). Second Bottom, side of the leaves dont get pesticide treatment,where most of the pests/eggs dwell. Third, with sprinkler lot of pesticide gets wasted because they will be in water form. Any foliar spray must be in foggy or misty condition for its effectiveness.
Can I integrate sprinklers with th drip or there should be separate spriking system?
For sprinklers if you have seprate line then it is good.(never seen or done integrated one)
You can do like this.
Embedd PVC pipes below 3ft leave terminal above ground level with valves. This line can be common for drip and sprinkler. After the gatevalve(after this point it is inter changeable) connect drip line or sprinkler based on your usage.
Try to install drip at elevated position. This will save from animal puncturing the tubes for water. When you elevate the post must be rodent proof. Rat/Squirrils/Mongoses must not climb it.
Since your soil is nitrogen difficent try to grow atleast two crops of velvet bean or alfalafa or any other legume prior for planting crops.
This will also act as mulc for your main crop plants.
Mixing red soil with sandy soil, I will keep it up for future option…after seeing results of this season. Looks expensive for me in this season.
I already have alfalfa and bengal gram which I will use for nitrogen fixing prior to my regular crops.
As you suggested, I will keep separate line for sprinklers. For pesticide spray, may me manual foilar spray should also be convenient. I have to buy the sprayer then.
I will filter jeevamritham with cotton cloth before feeding to drip. May be filtering twice should be in safe zone.
My land has currently lot of rodents…Killed a snake last week…Are rodents threat to drip pipes?
I did soil test at KVK. Comment is soil is good for all crops (vegetable&horticulture) except that nitrogen is low
Drip will come in a fortnight. As of now land is completely filled with grazing grass.
Rodents get attracted towards drip only in search of water. If you keep water in earthen pots in many places. They will not invest efforts to damage drip system.
There is small correction. The pipeline from borewell to plot below ground can be kep common for both sprinkler and drip. After the ball valve either you can connect sprinkler or drip.
About sandy soil you can make a test. Keep a bottle with small hole and after 6 hrs check the wetness how it is propagating. You can make soil mix around the plant locally not for enire farm. In sandy soil it is always downwards, in this case complete root zones of the plant may not get water.
Cost of alfalfa seeds is Rs300/kg bought from Jaimen patel, a gujarat based businessman who frequently advertises in farmnest and agricultureinformation.com
Hello Rancher,
It’s nice to hear that that you belongs to IT sector and are interested to know about something related to farming. Keep on going, take knowledge.