PlantASeed
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Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:35 pm
Location: madison wi

irrigating my 1/2 acre garden using lake water

Hi,
I am new to this forum and this is my first post. Glad to know this forum exists!

We have not had any rain to speak of this summer and I am tired of hauling buckets of water from the lake to water my 1/2 acre garden. I started doing my research and came across this forum. I am looking to purchase a fuel based trash pump (no access to electric power) that can handle some solids because the lake shore has weeds. The lake shore is quite shallow so I may need to go about 100 feet in. This will put me about 15 feet below ground level. I am thinking of building a deck to get the lift to install the pump. I don't have any idea what the HP or the type of the pump that should be used to get enough suction and the discharge needs to travel atleast 200 feet to access the entire garden. Any suggestions, thoughts appreciated. Thanks and lets hope for some rain.

Dillbert
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Posts: 955
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:29 pm
Location: Central PA

there's not a lot to "horsepower" - look at the pump specification - which should include

the maximum "lift" - this the the height of the pump inlet over the water surface - the "deck" thing is a little confusing - not sure I know what you mean there.

the maximum "head" - this is how "high" the pump will output - you mentioned 15 feet if I'm reading it right.

now, make sure the flow rate at your "head" is "right" - depending on the pump design, the flow rate decreases as the pumping height increases.

a lot of "trash pumps" are diaphragm aka positive displacement, others are centrifugal with large inlet/outlet with large clearance internals.

sucking algae / etc "in" is one problem. if the "trash" clogs up your "nozzle" - that's a different problem.

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TheWaterbug
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Posts: 1082
Joined: Mon May 02, 2011 5:15 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Welcome!!!

There was a [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29726&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0]similar conversation on this topic[/url] a little while back. You may want to read that first, then come back here with questions about where your application is different.



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