I lost my well and need a new one.

I just heard from my wife that our well went dry. We have shared the well with 2 other homes and have sucked it dry. What I need to know from anyone out there who is using wells for irrigation. How many zones, what is your pressure, and How big is your actual well. I have over 15 zones, and could have more if I dug my own well. What are your experiences out there?

We have some wells for our heat pump (geothermal)., but I admit my knowledge of them is sparce at best.

I would think, though, that the bigger questions should be WHY the well went dry. Where was the water coming from? Does your property have more sources, or will more wells just mean that the same water is used up faster? Would a deeper well in the same place access another reservoir? If your well was sunk into an underground stream, do you have another such stream under your property?

You need to know more about the water flow under your land. Another well may not solve your problem if the water isn't there to be tapped. And, unfortunately, other folks experiences won't help you there, because each spot of land is different.

And if you already know the water is available, then I apologize, and I will shut up now ;-)

Yes we have a $60,000 well over 280' deep into the gravel under the water table. We have never had problems in over 10 yrs of the well and also we had good rain, snow fall this year. We have been irrigating over 14 hours a day so the well is being heavily drawn upon. Both 2 other neighbors are doing the same irrigation but not over 2 hrs. Being that the well is suposed to be below the aquifer we are wondering the same thing. What I need to know is what size well is needed for our 3 acres of 15+ irrigation zones.

Unfortunately wells vary in their recharge rate. It all depends on your aquafer how much water you can pump from your well without running it dry. Sounds like yours isn't recharging as fast as you and others are discharging. Talk to others nearby to see what their experiences are.

Whatever are you growing that needs that much water?
Have you considered supplementing the plantings with some Super absorbent polymers, as http://watersorb.com/index.htm to hold water and hydrate the roots of your plants?
In my yard I have 95% sand and it just waves at the water as the water rushes by.
I have these crystals under about half of my garden. You can really tell the difference.

;)

My plants don't need that much water and my DW and I dissagree on that issue. My DW transplants in July and August much to my dismay. But because I love her and submit to her needs I have not confronted her. Anyway she has agreed to using less irrigation since this event. I do have over 1 1/2 acres of raised beds with each bed being only 8 to 1 year old. The newer ones need daily irrigation. The others don't. My DW doesn't understand the value of all the soil ammendents I have done. This week of 100+ F has given her a learning experience. All are doing well so I can stop irrigating the established beds and all will be well. Seeing that the new well will cost over 50K $. She is willing now to wait and see what happens. Though she was in tears when the well went. I just encouraged her to relax and wait. "All will be well Honey!"

You are a dear man!
I bet a little of this in the bottom of each hole before planting would realcut your water needs greatly.
I just did a mini co-op here in Florida. 55#s for $217.50. I sold almost more than I wanted to with many folks getting 5 or 10 lbs.
Best wishes on a re-establishment of your aquaflor.
Sidney Ann

I agree that soil ammendments will cut the need of water. That is why I have ammended each and every one of my beds with compost to the tune of 1 part native soil to 2 to 5 parts of compost. I just haven't convinced my DW that it will work. She was a farmers daughter and when drought happened in their farm pancakes were eaten for breakfast and dinner. She is comming around. All will be well. I actually have used large amounts of clay with the compost to cause moisture content to stay. We shall see how my theories work over this drought period.

Hope you find water. I found the water on our place with my "girls". My "girls" are two brass coat hangers, cut into this shape _______________l, only the handle (l) part is longer. I simply held one loosely in each hand pointing straight out in front of me and "they" led me to water. Not once, but twice. I also use them to find power, gas and water lines around the house. Have also found old junk buried on our property. Guess you could call me a "water witch". that is what several of our neighbors and they guy who installed our well called me.

Yes you are magnetic like me. Do you have problems with computer downloads or hard drive disasters when you load programs?

Here is an idea I have seen a gardener with limited water supply use. First estimate your daily water use for your irrigation (say you estimate 1000 gallons a day during July/August) next find a new or used plastic tank around that size. Now you can fill this tank with water from your well but at a metered rate of one gallon per minute over a 24 hour period (one gallon per minute for 24 hours would equal 1440 gallons) You could either have a mechanical float valve at the tank to shut off the water when full or install a liquid level switch that would operate an electric solenoid valve like a washing machine uses to turn water on and off. Now you have your water supply that you can hook an igiration pump to or use an inexpensive shallow well pump with a pressure shut off. You could also install a spigot for those watering can fill ups. Just an idea, hope it helps

We have water back on but I don't want this to happen again so I want to drill a well just for my garden Irrigation and that will allow me to expand my garden to the other 1 1/2 acres of my home and turn it into a heaven on earth. I just need to know what anyone who irrigates a lot has for a well. I have always wanted to have a cystern but the problems seems to be where in a large beautiful garden do you put an ugly cistern. LOL