Recommendations - Water pump for remote watering

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KellyP

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#288917 1-Aug-2021 11:57

Hi team,

I volunteer with a group who does native plantings and restoration in the Christchurch area.

Once the plants go in, unless there sufficient rainfaill, we need to water them to ensure they establish well.

We have access to water from taps but it's faily low pressure, (likely because they are far away from their source?), as a result it takes awhile to water a site with either a long hose or with buckets.

Just wondering if a water pump would help with the water pressure?

Ideally something other than a diesel generator - but we'll take what we can get.

Budget not a major issue as we would apply for funding.

Planting site example: https://photos.app.goo.gl/d1xvgTSNb97n8dEF7

Thanks!

larknz

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#2753237 1-Aug-2021 15:29

A pump will not work if there is insufficient flow from the pipe. The only way a pump will work is if you have a storage tank close to your site and you pump from that. Another option would be to have a trailer mounted tank that you could pump from.

Ge0rge

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#2753253 1-Aug-2021 16:22

You could run the current tap/hose into an IBC with a ball cock to turn it off when it was full, then use a pump from the outlet of the IBC to provide an increase in pressure and volume while you are watering. It's called relay pumping, and the fire service do it a lot at rural incidents.

KellyP

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#2754916 4-Aug-2021 09:58

Thanks for the replies - I'll look into a storage tank to make it work 🙂

duckDecoy

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#2754958 4-Aug-2021 11:16

I have a different question but its related.

We have two rainwater tanks, not sure of the size but probably 5-6ft tall and 4ft diameter. We'd like to put an electric pump in and connect it to our garden sprinkler system rather than using tap water. Do pumps deliver sufficient pressure for this to work? What types and costs would we be looking at. The tank is probably 10m from and 1.5 stories below the tap where our sprinkler system begins and we would want to hook into it there because we have a timer and 6 feeder system in place.

Last year I watered from the tanks by hand using watering cans but the outflow from the tanks is very slow so it takes 1-2 minutes per can to fill and just took me forever. Another less ideal option could be to connect a pump and hose and wander around watering, but it would very much lower in desirability.

MrAmerica

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#2754967 4-Aug-2021 11:51

How about drippers? Just let them run continuous if water isnt an issue. I have planted about 3000 trees on my place and for most of them run cheap pipe with drippers on each tree. After a couple of years you can move the pipe to elsewhere, although you need to plug holes where drippers are no longer needed.

Wouldnt take long if you have lots of people to help.