Gravity fed drip irrigation, semi-automated
Gravity fed drip irrigation, with the intent of complete, hands free automation.
Welcome, you've arrived at the Global Goals clubs challenge WIKI. We ask you to see this as a possible starting point to a new beginning. We hope to prove to the world, that if we use the SDGs as a guideline, a starting point in the search for simple solutions to impossible problems like poverty and hunger. If each of you reading this works toward even one small answer, the millions of small steps when combined into big steps, could be enough to change the world. We view Appropedia as a playground for people who love to try new things. We beg you to look around, find something which would make life simpler for those in need and make it better. We know there are better ways to do almost anything, maybe you'll find some of them.
What follows is an example of a simple yet effective way to create an abundance of fresh vegetables in a small space with minimal resources. See it as an example for the challenge. We ask you to create a wiki about your project and keep the world informed of your status.
Our wiki is free to to copy and improve upon! We used off the shelf products at a normal prices, but are searching for ways to replace them with home made versions, preferably from recycled plastic. We challenge you to prove that the world can still be saved, we simply need to begin. Find a way to mix cheap modern technology into the SDGs to answer as many of them as you can.
The project below attempts to answer problems within a multitude of SDGs simultaneously. At the end is the begin of an outline of possible improvements which could be created to enhance our garden or go off on a new tangeant.
Goal: To prove that by mixing fresh vegetables with science, recycled plastic, computers, computer networking and social skills, the poor starving people of the world can be fed at a minor cost, weighed against the benefit to mankind. The garden and ideas demonstrated here are in the public domain, free for anyone, anywhere to use. In exchange we simply ask that you find a way to help in reaching the Global Goals and especially Zero Hunger by 2030!
This goes to the global goals!
Intro
Welcome to our garden! What began as an experiment, has turned into a working garden which can run alone for several weeks at a time using rain water. The garden presented is small scale, approx. 30 plants, but can easily be expanded simply by adding more branches from the above ground tank and filling it more often. It's main purpose was to eliminate the carrying of water, eliminate guess work and wasted water, while ensuring that the harvest is never at risk due to lack of water. The main benefit was that the automation worked so well that a 4 week vacation could be taken in the middle of the growing season. Only 3 things limit its effectiveness; drought, pump outage and overly dirty water.
Our greenhouse drip system
20 Square meters, 4 x 5 Not heated, so does freeze at night in the winter.
Parts List
Since we have no more water pressure than gravity gives us, it only needs to be watertight. Here's a list of the parts we used, but we've begun to create 3D printed alternatives to reduce cost.
- 1 X 4000 liter underground tank (could be any size)
- 1 X pump (can be human/wind/solar or anything else powered)
- 1 X 100 liter above ground tank (again size unimportant)
- Hose - Enough to get the water out of the big tank and into the small one
- 4 X 90° 1/2" tubing connector
- 3 X 90° 1/2" T tubing connector
- 30 X 1/2" > 1/4" reducer T's
- 30 X Drippers
- 1/2" tubing - enough to reach all plants
- 1/4" tubing - enough to reach all plants
- 1 X Sand and Gravel filter made from: (links to follow later)
- 1 X 30 liter tank with screw on top
- Gravel
- Small stones
- Sand
- About a million connectors of all makes and models
Replacements
The following files are on a slow server. Have patience!
An impression of our garden
Drippers running, one slow, so it gets cleaned
The drippers are adjusted to provide approx 100ml of water per hour when the tank is full and will gradually decrease during the day as the tank empties. I estimate that each plant receives 2l water over a 24 hour period. At this time the tank is refilled, bringing the drip speed back to 100ml per hour. With time, dirt and/or algae collect on the dripper, decreasing output and must be cleaned away. We use an old toothbrush to clean and open the dripper to full open to flush dirt out of the tubing and dripper.
Grass cuttings are spread at the base of each plant as a mulch to reduce evaporation.
Drip adjustment
To begin the season, a glass was placed under a dripper and left to run for 1 hour and adjusted until 100ml dripped per hour. All plants were set to a similar drip rate and allowed to run. During the summer we experimented with more or less water per plant and although we found it difficult to always have the same drop rates, but no records were kept since it was mainly to ensure that the system would work as expected. In hot, sunny times more water was released, but without sensors in the earth it's difficult to know what amount is correct. The system was never turned off, meaning it dripped 24 hours per day, but very slowly.
Plants
16 Tomato 10 Paprika Various others including Eggplant, Cucumber, Green Beans, salad, herbs and spices.
Big garden
Multiple basic gardens share the same water source for an economical way to feed entire villages.
Problems to solve
The manual cleaning of drippers must be eliminated. It's the main drawback to this system. After 3 weeks they begin clogging and cleaning helps, but it's difficult to leave the system alone for more than a few days. Homemade replacement parts to reduce cost! Moisture sensors in the ground would give a more accurate measure of whether each plant gets enough water.
We'd like to solve this by putting a tiny motor on top of a spike at each plant and let the drip fall onto the ends of 2 wires, the computer could read the short circuit as a drop, thus enable real automation by adjusting the pressure on the hose to regulate the drop count.
Conclusion
This system runs well with little supervision, but the beginning takes time since too much or too little water can be bad. Automation would allow a hands free garden and is the prefered solution, if it can be done cheaply enough to feed the masses with little attention.
Our challenge to you!
This project is simple to recreate inexpensively, do it with recycled plastic and we'll have provided a relief of malnutrition.
- Here are a few examples
- eliminate the 4 corners!
- replace the 30 reducers and drippers with 3d printed from recycled plastic or find your own solution.
- find a way to recycle plastic, PET is the most obvious choice
- improve or make a better filter to eliminate clogging of drippers
- change the mechanical dripper which easily clogs with a simple, inexpensive alternative
- how do you collect and store enough water to best get through the dry season in various climates?
- make a manual pump which could be reproduced anywhere
- use your imagination, the answers lie within you
Most importantly of all! It must be so simple, any child could run it. There must be at least 1000 ways, please help us find them.
You're welcome to take our simple, yet expensive version and put it to shame, by
- simply find a solution that works better:
- cheaply mass producible
- automate it, make the dripper clog free
- eliminate or improve the filter
- bring the price per plant to below $1.00
- keep it simple enough that even a child can use it
Where would we begin?
- Recycled plastic, we must find a way to use what's choking our waterways and killing our oceans.
- 3d printed parts to eliminate cost
- An electrified dripper, could be a stepper motor or anything else. How about man made muscle?
- Stepper motors could be taken from outdated CD/DVD drives
- Networking, cables or IoT
- Computer, I'd begin with Rasp Pi, but cost and power must be considered.
- Linux because it's free and open
- Produce parts where jobs are needed most to allow multiple benefits from a single solution.
- If we can give the poor work and a way to feed their families we can reduce migration, stop them from leaving home.
Future Plans - here's where we want your help. Please fill in the blanks!
We've begun a list of the things which may seem impossible, but someone is already doing many of them. Join in and see how it changes the world! We can reach the Global Goals if enough people take part in the search for answers.
I imagine this list as a place for school kids to find project ideas. Within the list there are an unlimited number of things which could be investigated, experimented with and refined. Take my idea a step further, change it to fit your needs, most importantly, document it to help others on the road toward Zero Hunger. Top priority is that you talk about it, let others know you're working toward the goals and ask them for help.
Please feel free to link yourself in here. Tell us about your project, we're searching for the same answers you are.
Some garden options, Pinterest is full of ideas.
- Sustainable agriculture topics
- Maybe help can be found here
- Raised bed
- Vertical gardening
- Again vertical
- In a sack
- Bottle towers
- Square Foot garden
- Hydroponics/Aquaponics
Indoor vs. Outdoor gardening
- Advantages / disadvantages
Types of garden
Plants
- How do I decide what to grow?
- When to plant
- Diseases
- Where do I get the seeds?
- What works better where?
- Inside
- Tomatoes hate water on their leaves
- Outside
- Inside
- Define what each plant needs for:
- Sun conditions
- Watering requirements
- saturation levels
- depth
- Nutrients needed by various plants
- How to plant
- What works together and what doesn't
Automation, done dirt cheap
- Combine technology with gardening
- Automation
- An example
- And another
- This is getting close
- and closer
- A simple to follow video
- 3d print a step motor and sensor into the stake at the plant
- A simple squeeze of the hose with a part printed into the stake to adjust drip rate
- Make parts exchangeable for easy replacement at a minimum cost
- A simple squeeze of the hose with a part printed into the stake to adjust drip rate
- Allow the Pi to get input from the sensor and control the drip flow
- Gertboard type device as interface
- Networking
- How to find each dripper, sensor combination in the net
- How do we signal and power stepper motors at the plant
- WiFi or hard wire?
- Wireless has the radiation risk / Keep senders to a minimum
- Cloud storage
- Stats available on an app or online
- Interfaces
- How to go from PC to plant and back?
- How do I know what level my tanks have?
- The Gertboard
- Computer control systems
- PC ideas
- Raspberry Pi stepper control
- Step motor info (in German)
- An app
- Remote control
- Database, programs, interfacing
- Remote control through mobile app
- Drip adjustment with step motor or maybe something else?
- Sensor to count drops to PC which controls drip rate
- How to interface to the Pi, to count drops so it can use the number to adjust the drip rate?
- Efficiency and accuracy top priorities
- How to interface to the Pi, to count drops so it can use the number to adjust the drip rate?
- Pump - manual or wind/solar powered
- Computer controlled
- Feedback from tank feeler
- Same time each day
- Computer controlled
- Electricity - Everything, this will be new for me, but with your help. :-)
- Make it cheap, available at night and non polluting
- Wind or solar?
- Electricity storage and conservation.
- We can produce electricity in various ways, does this make an e-pump better?
- How do we get enough for 3d printing
- Make it cheap, available at night and non polluting
- Lighting
- 3D printing
- Drawing parts
- This is a simple yet powerful tool where Thingiverse parts can be edited
- Get drawings into proper format
- Pre-prep of parts for printing
- Files in public domain
- 2d to 3d conversion
- 3D printing of useful things We've added links to our suggestions at the beginning
- Can we print the tubing connections? (T's, reducers, etc) If not how can we make them?
- Do plans for those parts exist in the public domain?
- Some parts you may be able to use.
- What plastic is best, ABS? PLA probably not OK because it's based on sugar (my understanding)
- Other printed parts
- Can we print the tubing connections? (T's, reducers, etc) If not how can we make them?
- RepRap
- Drawing parts
- Water capture and storage
- Garden Barrels
- Filtering for household use
- Efficient ways to capture rain
- Water from the air
- Efficient ways to clean
- Efficient ways to use
- Additional Sensors
- Temp
- Humidity
- Water penetration
- PH
- Door/window openers, tank fill measurement and pump start/stop
- Some nice to haves, but not necessary, unless to better control climate.
- Recycle plastic
- How do we stop plastic from getting into the ocean?
- How do we efficiently clean up what's laying everywhere?
- How do we get the most out of our garbage?
- How do you sort what you find?
- How do we get people to recycle?
- Recycle plastic into things we need
- Another source
- This doesn't relate to our project, but is an example of plastic reuse.
- Can we make the hoses and tanks?
- Filament extrusion
- Walipini
- Land selection (climate + latitude + altitude, etc.)
- Choosing the right plan?
- Water
- Chemistry within the garden
- Efficient use of space
- Heating with the sun
- How do you make it easy for anyone to find an answer to a question?
- I've given them a place to meet, but how to reach their hearts?
- Education
- How to reach the young?????
How to show them our world as it is, no blinders? When and how to begin to teach empathy? Please feel free to link your genius into this page ;-)
Keep your projects as simple as possible, a child should be able to use it. We'll need to include an intended audience selection, so each garden can be classified for searching. I encourage comments, because I really want my team to help me fix my problems. Tell your friends about my wiki and the GG club. We need all the help we can get!
If you have an idea, but no team to back you up, you can count on me. Let me know and I'll find them. I can yell real loud!
Please don't miss this chance to heal humanity before it's too late for us all!!!