April 2, 2011.
We invest on drip irrigation system for our grapevines this year. We started planting grapes with a mix varieties along half of the first row about 3 years ago. Now we have four full rows of them, mostly Black Spanish and white Blanc Dubois grape. It takes 4-5 years for a grapevine to start producing good grapes, so we haven't harvested anything yet so far, just been training, pruning, and taking care of them all through the years. Our mission is to have a nice productive vineyard one day to supply to the fast growing wine industry around here. Here's the steps of drip irrigation installation that we did earlier in the month.
1. A ditch is dug at the beginning of the rows.
A pipe would be placed there to receive water
from the creek and then deliver it to each row.
2. Black hose, the main drip irrigation hose, that would deliver water
to individual plant is attached by clips to the bottommost wire
and goes all along the row.
3. Another ditch dug toward the creek, the water source.
This ditch would meet ditch No.1 on a T-junction.
A pipe would be placed and bring water to the pipe at ditch No.1.
A pump is set.
4. Pipe at ditch (1) is set and connected with the main drip irrigation hose.
5. Connection between pipe and the main drip irrigation hose
with filter and drip regulator placed at the beginning of a grapevine row.
6. Water filter and drip regulator at the beginning of each row.
7. Drip irrigation infrastructure above the ground.
8. The first run test for the pipe system went well.
The pump sucks water from the creek and water flows through the pipes
then the drip irrigation hose (not yet connected to the filter and regulator).
9. Poking holes on the main drip irrigation hose
right where the grapevines are.
10. Attaching the dripper on the holes.
11. A smaller hose is then attached to each dripper
and goes down all the way to the root of each grapevine.
12. Finally, after the smaller hose secured to the ground
right by the root, the base of the plant is covered with mulch.
The irrigation was set to drip 2 gallon of water to each plant within 1 hour and the vines need that every other day (corrected).
©Burke's Garden, 2011.
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