Thread: Adding Drip irrigation to our Tapioca farm

I was expecting to see the cassava grown on ridges in a similar way to potatoes. What are you doing about drainage for the wet season...they hate wet feet.

Originally Posted by Troy

I was expecting to see the cassava grown on ridges in a similar way to potatoes. What are you doing about drainage for the wet season...they hate wet feet.

As far as I know the locals have never had a problem with too much water and flooding around here. This is how they have been doing it for generations. I have never seen a flooding problem here only in Korat city once in 100 years a few years back. Natural drainage mabey? We are on a plateau here after all.

The idea of growing cassava in a ridge-and-furrow ploughed field was for better drainage during wet periods rather than flooding. However, it seems that Khorat does not get the heavy rain in May and August that is seen further NE. All the same, you may get better protection from an exceptional early rain (when the plants are not well established) especially when growing outside the "normal" season. That is, it would allow you to harvest later without worrying about getting the next crop in and established before heavy rains.

^
Go on Bob, buy a tractor
You know you want one

^ Mentioned a time or three already. Flat out refused. Not really a good investment as far as I can see.

I know the pics don't show it but there are furrows just not very deep and running perpendicular to the drip lines. I have seen it done both ways around here. Some have deep furrows and some have almost no furrows at all.

When they add the chicken crap to the soil before planting they use a tractor? to dig the furrows as well as mix the crap with the soil.

It's nice to see someone using good ol' common sense. Beautiful photos. Hope everything works for the best!

Thanks beazalbob69 for telling about this and the pictures of it. An aerial photo showing the irrigation layout would be cool. Threads like this, and the one about bees, for example, are what distinguishes TeakDoor, makes it one of the most interesting expat boards.

Bob..your field's looking tidy there, your staff have laid it all out neat, I wish you well with this project.
This form of irrigation is catching-on all around the country now..acres+acres of sugar around Hua hin is watered this way now..(but I suspect it is the larger/wealthier farmers doing this).

Hi guys. I’m Khonwan from TV (not yet banned but seriously pissed off with them). Been growing cassava for around 15 years and have a pinned topic on growing cassava in Thailand on that forum; I farm 170 rai of the crop. This is my first post in Teak Door, having just signed up today.

I too would certainly irrigate my cassava if only I could – so stick with it. Unfortunately, I have insufficient water. I’ve sunk 3 deep bore-wells (45m, 70m, and 90m) at different locations but only receive a trickle of water. My problem is granite; more to the point, granite with insufficient cracks to allow water seepage/collection.

How much water does your well yield, Bob?

Rgds
Khonwan

^Iv'e always been if it don't work thump it chap. so to me the obvious thing to do with a granite well that wont produce water would be to arrange a gentle thump with some high explosives.


To my supprise it apparently really can work:

Methods for getting enough water from a granite well
Most granite bedrock contains few cracks at depths normally reached by wells. That's why it's often difficult to get enough water from a granite well. The few water-bearing cracks present in granite usually occur in the first 200 feet.
If your driller has constructed a granite well that looks like it's not going to produce water, the driller may ask to stop drilling and try another spot.
The driller may also recommend blasting the well with dynamite to open water-bearing rock fractures. Blasting for this purpose may only be done by a person licensed to blast wells and under the supervision of a licensed driller.
A third, more successful and less dangerous method is hydrofracturing, in which large volumes of water are injected into a drillhole under thousands of pounds of pressure to open water-bearing cracks in bedrock.
If the only water available in the bedrock lies shallower than 40 feet, and the contractor drilled to at least 150 feet trying to obtain water, the driller, with your permission, may request a variance from the DNR to set less than 40 feet of casing. You or the well driller may call the nearest DNR office to request a variance. Sometimes it's possible to get approval right away. The DNR will then send a follow-up letter of approval. In other cases, the DNR may place special conditions on variance approvals, so the process may take a little longer.

so there you are, you need to find an army chap with some explosives to blow up the bottom of your well, partly because it might work... but mainly because blowing things up is fun and cool

BTW welcome to TD

Thanks Hazz. Yes, I'm aware of this technique and would be interested in trying it if I found the right person. So if anyone knows of an individual with such experience, I'd be delighted to talk with them.

Rgds
Khonwan

Originally Posted by hazz

^Iv'e always been if it don't work thump it chap. so to me the obvious thing to do with a granite well that wont produce water would be to arrange a gentle thump with some high explosives.


To my supprise it apparently really can work:

Methods for getting enough water from a granite well
Most granite bedrock contains few cracks at depths normally reached by wells. That's why it's often difficult to get enough water from a granite well. The few water-bearing cracks present in granite usually occur in the first 200 feet.
If your driller has constructed a granite well that looks like it's not going to produce water, the driller may ask to stop drilling and try another spot.
The driller may also recommend blasting the well with dynamite to open water-bearing rock fractures. Blasting for this purpose may only be done by a person licensed to blast wells and under the supervision of a licensed driller.
A third, more successful and less dangerous method is hydrofracturing, in which large volumes of water are injected into a drillhole under thousands of pounds of pressure to open water-bearing cracks in bedrock.
If the only water available in the bedrock lies shallower than 40 feet, and the contractor drilled to at least 150 feet trying to obtain water, the driller, with your permission, may request a variance from the DNR to set less than 40 feet of casing. You or the well driller may call the nearest DNR office to request a variance. Sometimes it's possible to get approval right away. The DNR will then send a follow-up letter of approval. In other cases, the DNR may place special conditions on variance approvals, so the process may take a little longer.

so there you are, you need to find an army chap with some explosives to blow up the bottom of your well, partly because it might work... but mainly because blowing things up is fun and cool

BTW welcome to TD

That does sound like fun Hazz. I almost want to try it even if my well produces enough water.

So far the well has been keeping up with demand but we dont know how well (no pun intended)it will hold up in the long run as it's not a proven setup yet.

And also welcome to the board Khonwan! You will like it lots of good info here and a bunch of crazies. Hard to get yourself banned here.

been thinking about it for a while
will follow this thread with interest
good luck
my yield was crap this year

G2BH, all yields throughout my area were down this season firstly because of the slow rains, then also due to continuous rain that lasted 3-4 days.

Still haven’t been banned, Bob, but have “resigned”. I changed my profile title to “Resigned. Moved next door” in reference to this site since their system automatically censors “Teak Door”.

Rgds
Khonwan

Hi Bob,

Great pictures. I would be very interested in the bottom line result you achieve with the irrigation. We did try this ourselves (3 years ago) on a scale similar to what you are doing and it did improves the yield, but I was worried that the volume of water in our well was not really adequate and I turned it off. No data.

Since then we have concentrated more on retaining moisture and nutrient in the soil and our current 17 months yield has now increased to 15 tons/rai.

We recently harvested 10 rai plot next to our house that was planted 11 months ago that yielded 7 ton/rai, so that we can plant a new (higher yielding ?) cassava that we hope to get 20 tons/rai in 17 - 18 months. Maybe we are dreaming, with or without irrigation, but we will play around and see what happens.

Our starch yield has always been 29 - 32%, which is good and much better than any of our neighbors.

New farmers should always focus on starch content as much as weight, each percent above or below the 25% standard makes a real big difference to the bottom line.

Again thanks for all the great pictures and information.

Excellent yields, InKorat; much better than mine (though I too have now planted a more promising variety).

So how are you retaining moisture? Mulching (with what, and at what rate?) or sheeting (how expensive?)?

Do you monitor starch yields yourself at the farm, or rely on the purchaser’s measurement?

Rgds
Khonwan

Originally Posted by Khonwan

Excellent yields, InKorat; much better than mine (though I too have now planted a more promising variety).

So how are you retaining moisture? Mulching (with what, and at what rate?) or sheeting (how expensive?)?

Do you monitor starch yields yourself at the farm, or rely on the purchaser’s measurement?

Rgds
Khonwan

Hi Khonwan,

Every year my wife adds mulch from leaves, grass and trimming. Most of this comes from our own garden areas. We really have not kept records of the cost of the mulch or the rate of application, since is comes from our lawns and gardens and is placed into compost piles and then is disposed of in the fields. We would need to do this even if we did not farm the land, since we have way to big of a garden and too many trees.

We are experimenting with fertilizers with high organic matter contents and I think this will help. I am also considering experimenting with other moister/nutrient holding additives to see the results and see if they are cost effective.

We have never monitored our own starch content, but do avoid the Cassava Buyers who we know play games with the percentage or deduct 10% for dirt or other foreign matter.

This idea started as a hobby for my wife, but with a lot of hard work on her part and some research and guidance from me, she is now making a decent return. She now only has 100 rai under cultivation, but will expand, if things go according to our plan. A little rain would really help.

Don't know if it has been suggested yet, but you could reduce the water use substantially with a subsurface drip irrigation. I'm sure you know, it's been around for many years.

hang on a second is tapioca what we call cassava?

Thanks for the thread. I have been in dispute with my missus for a while now about what this crop is. She kept saying it was a potato, then clarified, a type of potato, well, like a potato but not a potato, to which I said "piss off, it's a bloody stick not a potato". Anyway, now we know. Can you make pasta from tapioca flour?

^you can indeed, but get on line and search for a brazilian/portuguese recepi for
(massa de mandioca) use translation from google,
let us know how it goes

Great thread guys very interesting .we will be watching for the outcome .thanks

Just noticed a new reply to this thread.

I have some new pics to upload showing the growth so far. The plants are growing very fast and well. Look to be about double the size of non-irrigated and very healthy looking. Already started producing root bulbs and ready for fertilizer. Plants are just about as tall as me (which is not very tall lol only 5' 5").

So far looks like it will pay off should get 2 harvests every year instead of 1.