The Adventure Continues. 2016 Edition

[MendoGiantZ]

Three days of hard work and my urban orchard is 90 percent complete. Got all the fruit trees planted. Mulched everything and then covered it with a nice brown wood chip that looks really good. Re did the veggie bed with cantaloupe and zuchinni as well as some heirloom tomatoes. Planted 4 hydrangeas along the shady part of the house. It's looking super good and hopefully in 3 years I have more fruit then I know what to do with.

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Blue dreams are filling out a lot nicer then last year.

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Three days of hard work and my urban orchard is 90 percent complete. Got all the fruit trees planted. Mulched everything and then covered it with a nice brown wood chip that looks really good. Re did the veggie bed with cantaloupe and zuchinni as well as some heirloom tomatoes. Planted 4 hydrangeas along the shady part of the house. It's looking super good and hopefully in 3 years I have more fruit then I know what to do with.

Thx man. It's a good balance of having your good trustworthy friends help you. But also hiring a couple hard working people who are good at their craft. Plumbers , tractor people, electricians and carpenters are all a huge part of what we do.

 

[MendoGiantZ]

My buddy and I have surprisingly been able to keep up with all the work at both properties for the whole year so far. We hire some extra hands when we need them and most of the time I am overwhelmed but we seem to knock out the big projects ahead of time. Not gonna lie I go to bed every night and think about both spots and what needs to get done and how to accomplish it the best way. The stress builds up but might as well go for it while I'm young.

 

[GrowingGreen]

My buddy and I have surprisingly been able to keep up with all the work at both properties for the whole year so far. We hire some extra hands when we need them and most of the time I am overwhelmed but we seem to knock out the big projects ahead of time. Not gonna lie I go to bed every night and think about both spots and what needs to get done and how to accomplish it the best way. The stress builds up but might as well go for it while I'm young.

Strong work brother

 

[Keekee]

Ya doing GREAT mendo,
You just keep doing what ya doing MR.

 

[Savage Henry]

Not gonna lie I go to bed every night and think about both spots and what needs to get done and how to accomplish it the best way. The stress builds up

Shit, homie, I do the same thing and I'm just running two relatively small rooms. Keep at it, brother, we get what we earn.:woot:

 

[MendoGiantZ]

I ordered all the ten foot t posts the other day and they are getting delivered tomorrow morning. I bought a 6.5 foot roll that's 3200 feet long of the hortonova trellis netting. We rented a 4 stroke rhino brand t post pounder my friends reccomended to pound in all the t posts. Tomorrow we will go around to every plant and fertilize it. While it's getting watered we will clean out all the under stuff that creates bugs and bad air flow. We will also pound in the 4 t posts and put up a cube of netting for added support. A couple days of this and all the plants will be super stoked.

 

[MendoGiantZ]

The light dep is doing awesome. I am so glad I decided to do a second round.

 

[MendoGiantZ]

The seed starts are nice and fat. I get the feeling they are about to explode. I have never had plants this big before. It's not even July and I have a good amount of 7 and eight footers.

 

[Blaze]

I want to see some pics of that T-post pounder in action. Where did you rent it from?

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Action rents had it in Santa Rosa. I haven't seen it yet but my buddies said it was the best thing ever and they will never do it by hand again

 

[MendoGiantZ]

I'll throw some pictures of us using it tomorrow

 

[papapayne]

Looking epic man

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Thx. A couple of the big cherries were a little dry. About to set up the drip system in the next couple days. Anyone have pointers in the best way to do a drip system. I was gonna get a 3000 gallon tank that is on a float valve from the tank. Then buy a pump that will pump the water out of the tank into a one inch poly line with about 9 or 10 plants per zone and have a bunch of zones. Feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Blaze]

You might want to go a little bigger than 1" on the main line for a system that size. Usually you want your main lines to be larger than your 'spurs' and your 'spurs' to be larger than you irrigation lines. So for example on my garden the line that comes down from the pond is 3", the main line that comes off the valve box and goes to the raised beds is 1 1/4", the risers or 'spurs' that go out to each individual bed are 3/4", and the drip lines are 1/2". I wouldn't ever go smaller than 3/4"-1" for anything PVC for an irrigation system.

Breaking it up into different zones is definitely a must and don't cheap out on the timer. Hunter brand have been my favorite so far, very reliable and one 9v batter will last the whole season. If you get a unreliable timer you will be fighting it all summer. Whatever drip lines or emitters you end up buying should say what the maximum run you can have per zone at a certain PSI, you can use that to calculate out how many zones you need. I always under-size my runs thought to make sure I have consistent pressure.

I personally really like the Netafim Techline with 12" spacing. They are very sturdy, the fittings rarely leak, each emitters is pressure regulated so they are very consistent. The smaller 1/4" lines tend to get plugged up a lot more, even just a low mineral content in your irrigation water will gunk them up in a season, I have never had them last more than a few months when I tried them before we started having problems. Some of my Techlines are 3 years old now and still running fine.

The T-tape sucks, you can't make a spiral with it for a smart pot and all the fittings seem to leak. Not a big fan of bubblers or sprayers as they take a lot of pressure, are more prone to getting clogged, and they create a lot of humidity under the plant come harvest time. You can easily see if they are running though.

The Raindrip emitters that Netafim makes are also reliable and last a long time and can be removed to clear blockages, but you have to manually place each emitter in a 1/2 line which takes FOREVER if you have a large project like you do. Some people really like them though, I've got some family members that have been using the same ones for something like 20 years and they still work, but they are a serious pain in the ass the to set up that first time.

 

[papapayne]

You might want to go a little bigger than 1" on the main line for a system that size. Usually you want your main lines to be larger than your 'spurs' and your 'spurs' to be larger than you irrigation lines. So for example on my garden the line that comes down from the pond is 3", the main line that comes off the valve box and goes to the raised beds is 1 1/4", the risers or 'spurs' that go out to each individual bed are 3/4", and the drip lines are 1/2". I wouldn't ever go smaller than 3/4"-1" for anything PVC for an irrigation system.

Breaking it up into different zones is definitely a must and don't cheap out on the timer. Hunter brand have been my favorite so far, very reliable and one 9v batter will last the whole season. If you get a unreliable timer you will be fighting it all summer. Whatever drip lines or emitters you end up buying should say what the maximum run you can have per zone at a certain PSI, you can use that to calculate out how many zones you need. I always under-size my runs thought to make sure I have consistent pressure.

I personally really like the Netafim Techline with 12" spacing. They are very sturdy, the fittings rarely leak, each emitters is pressure regulated so they are very consistent. The smaller 1/4" lines tend to get plugged up a lot more, even just a low mineral content in your irrigation water will gunk them up in a season, I have never had them last more than a few months when I tried them before we started having problems. Some of my Techlines are 3 years old now and still running fine.

The T-tape sucks, you can't make a spiral with it for a smart pot and all the fittings seem to leak. Not a big fan of bubblers or sprayers as they take a lot of pressure, are more prone to getting clogged, and they create a lot of humidity under the plant come harvest time. You can easily see if they are running though.

The Raindrip emitters that Netafim makes are also reliable and last a long time and can be removed to clear blockages, but you have to manually place each emitter in a 1/2 line which takes FOREVER if you have a large project like you do. Some people really like them though, I've got some family members that have been using the same ones for something like 20 years and they still work, but they are a serious pain in the ass the to set up that first time.

Blaze, I just gotta say man, you seriously are a wealth of info. Thats some seriously awesome insider info right there, copied and pasted that into my notes. Next season...I will have to implement that. this season I am using 1 inch flex poly, to with rain bird 360 stake emitters. They are cheap and setup is pretty easy, but definitely take some vigilance. they get jammed up and sometimes shot their caps off etc. I had to do 3 zones in my setup, and check them daily to ensure they are evenly spraying water and tinkering.

 

[Blaze]

Yeah that's why I don't like that style of emitter. We used them for a few seasons but they were too much of a pain in the ass! The Techline just works right from the get go and keeps working all season long. We have enough problems with squirrels trying to destroy our irrigation lines, I cant mess around with anything that is going to add additional time or hassle to my set up.

 

[papapayne]

Yeah that's why I don't like that style of emitter. We used them for a few seasons but they were too much of a pain in the ass! The Techline just works right from the get go and keeps working all season long. We have enough problems with squirrels trying to destroy our irrigation lines, I cant mess around with anything that is going to add additional time or hassle to my set up.

Yea, its beating hauling water by hand which is a step up from last years season. now I know how to do it right :) ty again.

Stay free stay high

papa

 

[MendoGiantZ]

Alright alright. We got 640 ten foot t posts delivered this morning and manually off loaded them. We then carried half of the into the first garden and placed four by each 300 gallon grow bag. We fired up the rhino 4 stroke t post pounder and started hammering them in. (It was 98 degrees today. ) FML. We got about 2/3 of the pots done before I was pounding into a rock for three minutes and almost dropped the pounder on to my buddies head ( we decided it was time to quit for the day). Back at it tomorrow. Hopefully we can knock out the rest of that garden early then get most of the other garden done as we'll. We are going to just get the t posts in the ground and return the pounder machine and then take our time putting up all the trellis netting.