Botanical_Bryce

Thanks for teaching me some things.

sputinc7

Nick, where is that at? I see it's by the levee under the high wires, but is it where you had the 3 acre patch before, all plowed under? It looks like a different place.

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If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Nicolas Naranja

It's actually just southeast of the 3 acre farm. Between the highway and the railroad instead of between the dike and the railroad.

Plantain planting day 7 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

Plantain planting day 7 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

Plantain planting day 7 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

Plantain planting day 7 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Nicolas Naranja

Not too much in the way of fun and exciting plantain pics.
There is an old windmill and well on the property that was obscured by Elephant Grass and Brazillian Pepper trees. We killed them and lit them on fire
Plantain planting day 9 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

We got the pump installed and running so we have water now
Plantain planting day 9 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

Today was mostly about laying pipe for irrigation. Thankfully, the main line which is half a mile long was dug by machine. However the laterals which are 140' long need to be dug by hand. 140' by 18" doesn't sound like much until it's you back getting broke.

Plantain land prep by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

My business partner has quite a bit of experience growing plantains, and thankfully knows more about installing irrigation than I do. Normal practice in this area is to manage the water table for seepage irrigation. I should know more because I took a graduate level course in irrigation, but they didn't ever really get into the physics of system design.

Plantain land prep by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Botanical_Bryce

My main focus is in general produce and have been growing bananas over plantains. I am going to rethink this. I have not been cleaning my plantains so if I go tend to them I should have tons of little plants ready for replanting.

beam2050

awesome endeavor. that Honda pump should throw at least a 100 gpm. depending on water level and if its available from the well. did you run the well and time it before you ran all that pipe?

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Nicolas Naranja

It's giving us 120 gpm 1000' away.

__________________
Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

sputinc7

Is this going to be your first field or your only field?

__________________

If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

edwmax

Are you going to get the Windmill repaired and pumping? No power cost to pump water with it.

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Nicolas Naranja

The plan is to scale up to about 30 acres over the next few years.

__________________
Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Nicolas Naranja

I called around and found out that at most this set up probably does 120 gallons per hour. Which is fine for watering livestock, but the plants need 28000 gallons per week if it doesn't rain.

__________________
Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

sputinc7

Not to mention the lack of pressure with the windmill.
You know I wish you had kept a field of assorted rare bananas. You could sell them online for a few bucks a pound, not to mention to me...
I know, I know... but a guy can hope, can't he?

__________________

If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

edwmax

That's 9.7 days continuous pumping. ... More realistic the windmill might furnish 1/2 of that for the week depending on the wind. ... It may still be worth fixing later to offset some of the power cost and as a backup. ... What water line pressure are you working for and is irrigation by drip lines or sprinkler?

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beam2050

that well looks like 3 inch well in the picture, might be 4 inch its hard to tell. to run both the windmill and the pump you would have to use 2 separate drop pipes. the gas pump would require at the very least an 1 1/4 drop pipe to get the volume, 1 inch would drop volume. the windmill would require 2 inch liner with the pump going inside also to get any kind of volume from it. a 6 inch well would be kind of tight to get all this down, because the drop system would have to have couplings or bell ends to get the length of drop pipe that is required to function properly. an 8 inch well would work nicely for this, but would require a special wellhead, but at the same time everything would be difficult to install and service with out a pump hoist. we wont talk about water levels or draw down.

now look at their soil. looks like in the pic that it has sell in it. very sandy. a windmill would just water the first couple of bananas and that's it. and it has to have wind which it does not blow much in the summer around here. less your right next to the big waters.

now you can run an above ground pump on the windmill but they are expensive. this way you could get away with using 1 drop pipe, but you would have to use check valves on both systems and the would make you loose volume on the gas pump and any extra fittings on the suction line might leak air and also cause the volume to drop on the gas pump.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Nicolas Naranja

The well with the gas powered pump is 6" and the pump itself is 3" I believe. The Windmill is connected to a 2" well. The soil is sandy. The guy that dug the new well said it's about 2' of sandy soil and 30' of muck underneath. The soil was actully pretty rich when I tested it. Anyways, permitted wells are expensive and I don't plan on doing it again.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Nicolas Naranja

Not sure about the pressure, but it is microsprinklers.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

beam2050

lugged around many a gas pump in my day. 3 inch discharge and suction are rare. now you see that square muffler on the side of the gas pump? you could probably put that muffler inside of a 3 inch male adaptor, not the treaded end. they pretty much come out with 2 inch. the old brigs and stratons did 150 gpm. when Honda came out they had large cast steel pumps that took 2 people to pick up and the would only do 100 gpm. I own one with a plastic housing, but I have never timed it. 100 bucks near new, I use it to supply water on a cabin in the gulf and set pilings.

like the sweeps your using on your line. most people would not know and use regular 90s in there lines. I would take the pvc male adaptors off your pump and use 2 inch galvanized mipples going into your dresser couplings. the pvc ones are going to break especially the way that gas pump bounces around. kind of fun digging that pvc out of the threads.

if your 2 inch well is galvanized it is probably toast. most well drillers here in Florida quit using galvanized in the late 80s early 90s and went to pvc wells on anything smaller than 6 inch. basically because of cost but also because the tannic acid in the ground attacks the pipes at the threads and puts holes in the casing, makes em draw sand and stuff. AVERAGE life expectancy of a 2 inch galvanized well around here is 18 years. some last longer and some last a lot less. larger wells are sometimes made from pvc but anything with a submersible any more a being constructed of steel because the pumps can get hot and melt the pvc and destroy the well. steel is also used in areas that we have great difficulty installing a well.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

beam2050

my apologies mr. naranja if I have offended. I was in no way trying to offend or put you down. I like the use of the gas pump and your set up, shows your partner knows what he is doing. I am just trying to HELP. I started well drilling in the oil field in the mid 70s. and started out water well drilling for a major Florida well drilling company in 83. retired after 33 years..................we use gas pumps to clean out the wells after we drill them. we used them because of their high volume, get the wells done and get out of their quick..............course I don't know much about bananas........ trade?

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Nicolas Naranja

No offense. I am not an irrigation expert. My knowledge ends at how much water the plant needs and how often it needs it. The mechanics of getting the water to the plant are outside of my wheelhouse.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Nicolas Naranja

The weeds are coming...

3 september 2017 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.