Anyone use a rain barrel for drip irrigation?

I'm going to be getting a rainbarrel to install under a downspout I have that leaves a wet, soppy mess in that area of my yard. I've got 2 beds that run down either side of the house from where the rainbarrel will sit. Are there "kits" that one can buy to install a tap in the rainbarrel to run a drip line from?

Appreciate any tips or tricks anyone might know about in how I can do this.

Brenda

I got one at a local farm store its plastic and works. I know of a wholesale industrial pipe and plumbing store who at that time carried them as well.

You can make one with a close nipple two electrical lock nuts with washers and some good gasket material. The plastic tap is really the way to go. Ernie

Thanks, Ernie....as I'm not too good with constructing things (especially without pictures & directions) I'll pass this on to DH. As the engineer in the family he should be able to make sense of it. I think that's what he was thinking....plastic tap.

i just catch it and pitcher it out to the plants in the greenhouse

Langbr if I can remember when I am at work I will look in a book and find it for you. If dh knows what a bulkhead fitting is thats the basic deal. Ernie

I've been thinking about something like this, as well. I catch as much as I can and bottle it up. But I'd love to have a 50 gal. barrel with a spigot. Rain water is soooo much better than city water.

Cheri'

I also collect rain water into a large tub that I bought at Lowes. I use gallon water jugs to bring the water inside to pour into my houseplant watering cans. My question is - how do you prevent mosquito problems in the remaining water outside? My DH suggests a very thin layer of vegetable oil to prevent the larvae from receiving oxygen - or to simply agitate the water each day. The oil sounds too messy and I'm not sure how it may affect my plants. For now, I simply stir up the water each day. Any suggestions?

Langbr went out to my gh and looked at mine I can't see the mfg but it is described as a P.V.C. wall fitting & nut it is 1 & 1/2 inch female pipe on the outlet side. I would immagine lowes or home depot would have them. Decide what size valve you wat to use then get that size then all you need to hook it up is the wall fitting and a short nipple to couple the valve to the fitting with. Hope this helps. Ernie

Mariajose How about a little wooden frame that covers the top of your container and cover it with window screen. Ernie

Thanks Ernie!!! You're the best. Now hopefully we can get this all set up while the spring rains are still fallin'.

Cheri - All the reading I've done says you need to make sure your not drinking or cooking with collected rainwater without treating it especially if you have the tar-based composition shingles on your roof. I wasn't sure from your post if you were using it for that or to use in the house for other things (plants, cleaning, etc).

mariajose-- The commercially built ones I've looked at all have a screen cover to prevent mosquitos and screen out debris. The other thing I liked (which I've got to think about with little ones running around) is to make it child-safe. Sure don't want a curious 2 yr old climbing up to look in the rainbarrel and fall in. One of the websites I was on sold some tablets that are suppose to "clean" the water and help control skeeters.

Brenda

Langbr yw and I forgot to say the price still shows on mine $ 5.69 just for comparrison. Ernie

eek! no, I'm not consuming the rainwater . . . LOL! That would be nasty . . . My plants love it, but I don't think I would. ;-)

I filter all the city water that we do consume, to remove as much chlorine and stuff as I can. The city is very proud of the amount of chlorine and chlorine related chemicals they pack into the water. And I hate it when I run out of rain water for the plants. You know the Mr. Clean carwash system that you see advertised? The one with the filter? I can't help but think that's what I need to water my garden when I'm out of rain water - minus the soap. (DD says there is something wrong with me . . . )

As to Mosquitoes, mariajose - it's a problem! I bottle up as much as I can store in gallon jugs and two ltr. bottles. I can store maybe 25 gallons. The rest gets dumped after 3 days. *sigh* such a waste. 'course, I dump as much as possible on my Louisiana Irises, so it's not a total waste. But still . . .

This is why I would like a 55 gal drum. I could put a lid on it between downpours. Or a screen, or something . . .

Cheri'

I must say that the barrel that you are going to put must be kept about a foot or more above the ground to give 'pressure' to the water that runs out of it and drip properly at the places you want. I have not used one, but this is what I think you should do. I have used a barrel to collect rainwater. I have fixed plastic taps using a nipple. Then, we can use an flexible plastic attachment to connect the pipe that takes water to the desired area. This will enable you to use it as a tap if you are not using the drip irritagion. For filtering, I am using a big pet bottle. The bottom is cut open and this is the inlet receiving from the downspout (like a funnel). I have kept sponge inside this to filter dust. Water is reasonably clean. The heavier particles will settle down. I have cut open half of the top of the barrel. Am using a hinge to open/close this lid. Mosquitoes still enter the barrel through little holes and this is not avoidable. But at another place I have the top fully open. But now, I want to cover it properly with mesh to prevent these blooming insects and their larvae.

Many thanks, Dinu.....yes I was planning on putting the rainbarrel on cement cinderblock which is recommended by a lot of the sites I researched for the same reasons you stated. Also, this allows one to put a watering can under the spigot without difficulty.

Thanks for all the excellent suggestions and ideas, particularly for the safety reminder regarding children! I'll be heading to the hardware store tonight.

What a great website!

For skeeters in rain barrels they make a product called "mosquito dunk" and "Mosquito donuts" that you put in your rain barrels. It is just another form of Bt (bacillis thuringiensis) and kills the larva. It is not harmful to warm bodied animals.

I've floated vegetable oil on the top of my rain barrels and it works great. (Buy the cheapest kind you can find.) Since some of you will have spigots at the bottom of the barrel you won't be using the oil...it'll stay on top and you'll be pulling water from the bottom.

(edited for spelling...I KNEW I shoulda made more coffee this morning!) ô¿ô

This message was edited May 25, 2004 2:32 PM

Thanks, Shoe!! I knew I'd seen something about a skeeter preventer! I better get some as I just found skeeter larva in some daylilies I was soaking in a bucket a bit too long! Ewwww!

Hi langbr and all,
So how do you all catch the rain? From your roof gutters? We have been wanting to catch rain water for quite some time now and I am determined to make a set-up this summer.
It would make sense to locate it close to the garden(s). My largest garden is between the garage (which is slightly more uphill than the house) and house, so I could set something up at the garage and create some kind of irrigation system to my garden....
I just heard about the "Mosquito donuts" on NPR. They are supposed to be 100% safe and natural. Wish I could treat our whole swamp and springs with them! We've had a ton of rain for the past couple of weeks and now they say the mosquitos will be outrageous this year. I am thinking if I would have had a system already in place, with all the rain we have had, I could have had enough rainwater to last me the whole summer by now!

I catch the rain off of the roof, mainly. I think I could fill up a 50 gal. barrel pretty quick. And use it up almost as quickly. This looks like one of those summers where we get 5 or 6 inches (or more) at a time, then none for a few weeks. =( At least that's how it's been going so far.

We get a lot of rain here, so mosquitoes are outrageous all the time - well, February thru November, anyway. They found West Nile in our parish back in March . . . *sigh* I'm going to have to try those mosquito donuts.

No dead birds in my yard yet this year, tho!

Cheri'

sierrawoman - I think you've got the right idea. Catch the rain at downspouts from your gutters. The question then becomes whether you have gravity working for you. Basically as your barrel fills up you run a tap out of the barrel. I decided to try a rain barrel with a tap and a kit offered by Gardener's Supply. It's a drip irrigation system (you can pick up the individual pieces at Home Depot, Walmart, Lowes and others or through mail order sources). Here's the one I went with.

http://www.gardeners.com/sell.asp?ProdGroupID=17317&DeptPGID=18252&lstCategory=18256&lstSort=&RecGroupNum=1

I haven't yet got it and set everything up but I'll report back here how it works out. Theoretically, gravity will allow the drip irrigation to work as long as the water level is higher than the tap and drip lines. Because of this I plan to set the barrel on cinder blocks which will also allow me to get my watering can under the tap if I need to do that to water other plants (containers) by hand. If this works out I hope to add more barrels and irrigate my deck containers and other gardens around my home.

Wish me luck!!
Brenda

Luvly thread!
Now I just wish someone would take pictures of the spigot/nipple system for those of us hardware challenged:(

I still can't figure out how to join threaded 1/2" to 3/4" pvc pieces. Spent 1 hour at wally world, and another at Lowes waiting for the plumbing guy to no avail today, I HATE hardware :(

Yup, up late, will probably have nightmares of looking at all the different pvc pieces.

lol!!!! Well as soon as I have mine together (and I'm not doing the puttin' together mind you -- that's DH's job!) I'll take a picture for you Violabird. That's assuming of course this all works out.

I'll bet Ernie has the answer to your question on hookin' up the 1/2" to the 3/4"!!! Right Ernie?

Need more info so I will give you a safe generic reply . if pvc is threaded both endsyou need 3/4 x 1/2 threaded reducing bushing.

If both pcs are to be glued you still need the same thing only without threads . This type are commonly called slip fittings because you apply primer and glue and slide them togeather.

if its just two pcs of pipe you are trying to get togeather then you neeed a reducing coupling or need to use a coupling and a bushing.

hope this helps Ernie

Hey Ernie, why don't they just CALL them 'threaded reducing bushings' ? And where in the heck are they? Am I better off trying a hardware store?

Yes they are threaded and yes, I must have looked at every 'bushing', 'coupling', 'adapter' and piece of pvc at Lowes, all of course, but the one I needed:(

Ernie, whenever you're ready to give a course on hardware, please LMK, I have no DH and tire of trying to lasso available, knowlegeable menfolk every time a project comes up.

Vi

VI some are called threaded if they have threads and some are called slip if they are glued. Is there a smaller plumbing supply near you. The big box stores are famous for only stocking the common fittings and only few stock what is called jump sizes which are a common fitting that may be like you need one size on one end and a bigger or smaller size on the other. Some strange adapter fittings have threads on one end and a glue joint on the other.

Yes I could teach a little on hardware I went to school to be a shop teacher but spent my life in shipyards. Building things is my passion and one of my favorite hobbies. Ernie

I guess I did an 'easy' version of catching and using rainwater in my garden.

I bought some used 55 gallon food-grade plastic barrels for about $8 each. Installed a regular (but plastic) hose bibb (that's the name for the spigot that comes out of the wall for our garden hoses) near the bottom, using silicone adhesive to keep it from leaking around the hole in the barrel. (Here's a pic of the barrel, just sitting on my back deck... the hose bibb handle got broken in my move so I'll need a new one.)

Then I could just attach a regular garden hose, or attach one of the seeper hoses, using the water how and where I wanted it just by opening the valve.

Oh, I also used the mosquito donuts Shoe mentioned above.

I cut off the downspout with a hacksaw and put one of the short curved pieces of downspout material (available at HD, Lowe's, etc.) on the cut place so the downspout directed water into the barrel. Overflow just went into the yard if the barrel was full which seldom happened.

Sierrawoman... you should throw some of those mosquito donuts in the swamp and springs you have.

Hi Darius,
Good to talk to you again! It's been a while! This looks like an easy way to go. Where did you get the barrels from---a local restaurant?
Brenda's idea of setting them on cinder blocks is a good one, too. I think I'll do that.
What are those donuts made of anyway? I wouldn't want to put anything in the springs unless it was 100% safe, since that's our water source...and eventually these springs run into the Platte River. And our dogs play and drink in them all the time.
I am so glad I saw this thread! I've wanted to do this for a few years and just haven't...but now I am inspired and determined.

I actually got the barrels from the old Gerber baby food plant in Asheville, now defunct. They got apricot juice in them from Africa. Mine were up on cinder blocks too but still didn't have much water pressure... just enough to water beds with a small trickle.

I'd really research Bti (the active ingredient in the mosquito donuts) and potable water supplies before using in your spring. Certainly use it on any standing water that's not potable! I do understand that the Bti won't hurt the dogs (or any warm-blooded animal)... just not sure about long term effects your personal water supply. Our spring box delivered water to the house before the overflow area. Worth investigating, though!

Here's just a couple of links... just not enough to make your decision.

http://www.groworganic.com/a/item_PBI220_BactimosMosquitoFloatingDonuts6P.html
http://www.mosquito-control-products.com/mosquito-dunks.htm

Raising the drum higher will raise the head pressure and the fuller it is the greater the pressure. Ernie

Here's a link to pix of a barrel I made.

Paul


http://davesgarden.com/t/432576/

eweed has said it!
The fuller and higher the barrel is, the more the pressure. That is the norm for drip irrigation.

Paul - where did you get the barrels? I've read that if you lightly sand with a fine grit paper the new Krylon Fusion paint for plastics cover these very well.

I know I could have made one myself a lot cheaper but with running a business and being busy with family and routine garden tasks I was willing to pay for the one from Gardeners.

This is my "test". Like I said if it works well then I'll add on barrels as overflow containers. In which case it might be fall/winter and I'll have more time to make them.

Brenda

I would like you to prefer connection of barrels from the base sides since water will be retained equally in all the containers. I am facing a slight disadvantage with overflow collection. I have used a small pipe and the inflow is way too big than its outflow and so a lot of water is wasted. I have not tried the bigger pipe for the overflow connection.

You can find some interesting links here http://davesgarden.com/t/420156/