Farm Notes for Week Ten, 3/30/11

Week 10 Notes from the Farm (by Katy)

We first met in the greenhouse where Patty from Harmony Farm Supply and

Henry talked about the water system in the nursery. We looked at the chosen irrigation parts for this system. The nursery has ¾ inch piping along both sides

that run from a larger pipe in the center of the north wall where the water from MMWD is piped in. There is a solenoid valve and pressure regulator on one wall. The solenoid valve has an electrical timer which determines when the valve opens. (See photos of this in this weeks photo postings).

Water feeds into overhead piping with four misters that emit water at a 6 ft radius that covers the nursery tables. For spot watering there are spot-spitters as well as a hose with a 1000-micron head that emits a fine rain. Henry showed us the 9-system controller (he salvaged!) that manages the environmental controls in the nursery.

We went next to the wooden controller box up above the C-section of the garden. Here we got a view inside the box. The piping here was constructed to have necessary shut off valves. Henry mentioned that piping insulation is a good precautionary measure even though often it is said it's not necessary in the N California climate. The damage from pipes bursting he advised is not worth the trouble and that it's easier to make sure well it's insulated from the start. We looked over the parts that Patty talked about in the classroom; filter, pressure reducers, dig timer and raintowers.

Next we went to the top of the farm to look at the system created to provide water for the orchard and upper field. This system was created to bring MMWD water up the hill and help it efficiently keep a good water pressure for watering in the top part of the farm. The tank can hold up to 5400 gallons. There is a solar pump inside with solar panels on one side of the tank. Two 80-gallon pressure tanks sit outside the main tank with bladders inside that create the pressure. (See photos of this system in photo posting for this week.)

We next split in three groups: Some of us transplanted and potted tomato plants in the nursery, some of us dug and prepared the holes with gopher baskets to plant pear trees along the fence line, and some of us laid drip tape on beds and planted cauliflower and bee’s friend in section B, and broccoli and onion in section C.

In laying drip tape the seam is always placed up to avoid sediment jamming up in the emitter holes. On this tape the emitter holes are about 8 inches apart. For the 30 inch wide beds we ran two strips of drip tape parallel about 18 inches apart and 6-8 inches from the side of the bed. We stapled down the tape, placing stables right across from each other and about 4 good paces apart.