Suggestions, watering trees.

[Eugene]

Moderate drought area. Going to plant seedling pecan, dwarf fruit trees, and gooseberries, on the acreage this spring. Will need to water.

Have two each year around springs from which to draw water and a WD Allis with carry all.

55 gallon drum on carry all and garden hose attached to the bottom of the barrel to water seedlings.

Looking for low cost suggestions for drawing water from the springs. Could dip out with 5 gallon buckets, that's not fast and hard on an old guy with bad back.

Checked some of the inexpensive 12 volt sprayer pumps, but they have a low gallon/liter flow rate.

[Urbish]

12V battery, solar charger, windshield washer fluid pump (or other small 12V pump), and a float switch to turn the pump off when the barrel is full? Would take a while to fill, but you could leave it out there when not watering and it should be full every time you want to use it.

[Slim140]

PTO pump on tractor? Priming it would be the hardest part.

[Eugene]

More suggestions please. Cheap, I'm frugal.

There are on demand 12 volt sprayer pumps. Have been thinking about removing the pump from my 15 gallon herbicide sprayer and installing one with more psi. I assume the pumps will supply more gallons per minute than rated flow at the much lower psi (almost none) when pumping from a spring into the barrel.

Severe drought several years back. Ponds dried up. Missouri was offering funds to either drill new water wells or deeping current wells.
I have the only year around flowing spring enclosed within a perimeter fence in the area that didn't dry up. Neighbor who runs cattle on the acreage, 60 - 80 head, watered his cattle there.

Also have two each year around spring fed streams on the property line but outside the fence. When the drought hit, considered a solar powered pump to supply a water tank for the cattle, but didn't need one.

Couple of years ago on a hot summer day, exited the acreage to find a family enjoying the cool spring water flowing over the top of the low water crossing, acreage property. Two small girls, attractive woman in bakini, and an adult male. Didn't complain or tell then they were on private property. Did engage them, mostly her in conversation for a couple of minutes. - - - - Enough said, back to asking for suggestions.

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

I think you have a small generator as I recall, use it and a small sump pump or transfer pump.

[Eugene]

I think you have a small generator as I recall, use it and a small sump pump or transfer pump.

Now that's a great idea. Not expensive since I own everything except a small sump pump and the reservoir/barrel. Barrels are available at the local hardware store for $15-.

More suggestions, please.

[outdoors4evr]

Probably more expensive than a sump pump, but a gas powered trash pump would be ideal.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shop4Omni-4- ... 3=&veh=sem

If you already have a generator and a lot of hoses, maybe just one of these would do the trick. It can lift water 42 feet high and is self priming.
https://www.harborfreight.com/110-hp-tr ... 63317.html

[Eugene]

Going to purchase a 12V bilge pump. Inexpensive. If the advertisements are correct, with a 500 gpm per hour flow rating, should be able to fill a 55 gallon barrel in about 8 minutes.

The bilge pumps came up while searching for a 12 volt sump pump.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[Slim140]

How about a 12V bilge pump?

[John *.?-!.* cub owner]

Bilge pumps do not have much lift capacity, only meant to lift a foot or two and dump over the side.

[Eugene]

Thanks John. Back to looking at 120V sump pumps.

Edit: Was looking at the specifications for various sump pumps. In their owners manual they provide the gallons per minute at 2 meters head/lift.

Depending on which spring I draw water from, one the highest lift would be about 2 meters from the water to the top of a 55 gallon barrel. Appears that I will need a pump putting out more than 500 gallons per hour.

More research. Reading the users reviews.

Since they are inexpensive, think I will give one a try.

[Jack]

there is a well in the field that the previous owners used for the horses to drink from, I plan on using a submersible pump and a generator to pump water to my crops. as for my veggie garden I catch the rain water in a large take and gravity feed to the garden, using a garden hose.

[Eugene]

Have a well on the acreage. But, the well head is about 4 feet underground and would need to be elevated to above ground level to make it usable. Also, I'm pretty sure that the well head has been under water at least once. And a couple of times the flood water came within several feet of the well head.

The north side of the acreage, where the well head is located is flat, subject to flooding. Also the base is a gravel pit. Soil is anywhere between 2" and 12" deep. Water is very close to the ground surface as I have a year around mud bog near the center of the flat ground. Pretty good area for growing trees and gooseberries. Not much else.

There are two year around springs about 200 feet from the well head including a pond supplied by one spring and another runoff water supplied pond about 300 feet distance to water cattle. Not willing to expend the funds to elevate the well head because there is no house/residence on the acreage and I don't need it.

The well and putting a residence on the acreage has been a discussion between son and I for the almost 20 years we have owned the property.

Looking for an inexpensive method of watering seedling plants until they are well established.

[Eugene]

Since I'm on the topic. Son stopped by this evening. Talked about watering tree seedlings. Son said to lay the water barrel on its side and use the small barrel opening to water the seedlings, top opening to charge the barrel. Good idea.

This will reduce the bilge pump pumping elevation by just under a meter in elevation.

Good thing I asked for suggestions.

[Eugene]

Bilge pump came in; submersible, 12 volt, 1100 GPH., 4 meter head.

Have about $40- in the pump, garden hose plumbing fittings, 20 feet of 16 gauge lamp wire. Other electrical parts came from my junk box.

Filled the basement bath tub and put the pump to a test. Output end hanging in a crab apple tree. The further up I hung the output end, less water flow. At around 8' to 10' feet, guessing, 800 gallon per hours. That should take less than 4 minutes to fill a 55 gallon drum.

A used, cleaned, 55 gallon drum and garden hose fittings will cost about $22- including tax. Total cost a bit over $60-. I have garden hose and repair ends on hand.

Just had a thought, another back pain saving use is to fill the herbicide pressure sprayer tank. Been using 5 gallon pails to dip water out of the spring and carrying to the pressure sprayer.