Thread: Adding Drip irrigation to our Tapioca farm

Originally Posted by Roobarb

Great stuff BeazalBob. Thanks for your update.

I appreciate you need to wait for the final numbers to come in to work out the actual yield; but what does the family reckon, gut feelings here on the basis that they know the game, has irrigation been worthwhile?

Everybody is very happy with the yield. Even better considering the roots had a fairly high water content because the plants didn't have enough time to dry out some before harvest because of the late rainy season we had here this year.

I'm stayin out of this.

Originally Posted by beazalbob69

Originally Posted by Necron99

Bob, what do you estimate the per rai cost of the irrigation?
Looks cheap as chips. The wealthier farmers here do it for corn as well.

I figure about 1000 baht per rai not including the well and pump which we already had. The hoses only last 3-4 years before the sun and water gets to them. The stuff is pretty cheap at 850 baht per 1000 m.

Hi Bob, I'm Tosj and new here. I have been reading your post, i'm also busy with drip irrigation, but i was wondering where you got your stuff for 850, cos in Lam Plai Mat they are asking 1700 for 1000 mtr. 2,5l/h distance 30cm. your is a lot cheaper, specially cos i need around 30 km of flat hose. Its for my sugarcane. Greetings and all the best for this new year.

Originally Posted by Tosj

Originally Posted by beazalbob69

Originally Posted by Necron99

Bob, what do you estimate the per rai cost of the irrigation?
Looks cheap as chips. The wealthier farmers here do it for corn as well.

I figure about 1000 baht per rai not including the well and pump which we already had. The hoses only last 3-4 years before the sun and water gets to them. The stuff is pretty cheap at 850 baht per 1000 m.

Hi Bob, I'm Tosj and new here. I have been reading your post, i'm also busy with drip irrigation, but i was wondering where you got your stuff for 850, cos in Lam Plai Mat they are asking 1700 for 1000 mtr. 2,5l/h distance 30cm. your is a lot cheaper, specially cos i need around 30 km of flat hose. Its for my sugarcane. Greetings and all the best for this new year.

Found it, seems i had missed one page, DoHome, and they still have them. How long were your drip lines, what kind of pump you feeded your lines? i'm going to make 4 sections. 1 section a night dripping.

Hi,

I read the whole topic, but didn't see what your row spacing and plant spacing was?

Just a small update from a few months ago. We are still using the drip irrigation and we are now using about 3 rai for Mulberry for silk worms which are growing nice. I will be going back in June so more pics to come.

FIL is living in the small hut on this land now and is growing many different fruits and veggies.









Pump house. Well and pump still working well(no pun intended).

This is our Farm Truck or "Tuk Tuk".



Engine.

Nice of you to come back on this. I did raise a point in that I thought drip irrigation didn't increase yield. Have you done any trials in proving that to be false? I'm not having a dig. I'm just inquisitive as I see only a few doing this. But that could well be down to them having no water source.
Are you based Sa Kaeo region as that's the only area I've seen Mulberry plants growing? My wife's family are from around there and farm silk worm.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Nice of you to come back on this. I did raise a point in that I thought drip irrigation didn't increase yield. Have you done any trials in proving that to be false? I'm not having a dig. I'm just inquisitive as I see only a few doing this. But that could well be down to them having no water source.
Are you based Sa Kaeo region as that's the only area I've seen Mulberry plants growing? My wife's family are from around there and farm silk worm.

As far as yield goes it doesn't really increase it that I can tell but it does cut the growing time substantially. Most people in the area have added some sort of irrigation if they have access to water and a means to pump it. Being able to get 2 harvests instead of 1 in a growing season seems to work out better even if yields are slightly smaller (but imo yields look about the same).

We are located in Korat, west of Chok Chai, in Nong Bunmak. Raising silk worms and Mulberry is new for my village but Korat has some decent production. My wife got into trying it from some older people in the area that are part of a coop I believe. They will show her how to do everything. They were surprised someone younger was interested in silk worm farming as it's a dying trade.

We haven't started with the silk worms yet due to family tragedy (Wifes 22 yo brother killed in truck accident, was living with us). But the Mulberry we planted are growing well and she has buyers for the leaves.

I live approx 70km East of Chok Chai off route 24. I know Silk is supposed to be a big thing within the Korat area, but I've never seen Mulberry bushes/trees being grown. May be I look in the wrong places.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I live approx 70km East of Chok Chai off route 24. I know Silk is supposed to be a big thing within the Korat area, but I've never seen Mulberry bushes/trees being grown. May be I look in the wrong places.

I have only seen them growing in a couple of places myself. Have done a little research and Thai silk production is way below demand compared to 20 - 30 years ago. Not even enough production to satisfy Thailand's needs never mind exports. Supposed to be better returns compared to cassava but need irrigation and more care than cassava.

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I live approx 70km East of Chok Chai off route 24.

I live about 25km east of Chok Chai off route 24. A little before the Nong Bunmak Hospital.

I said west of Chok Chai before must have been 1/2 asleep.

Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?

Originally Posted by Racin

Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?

Irrigation in my area is pumping water between the plants, cassava is planted on small mounds.
So tractor can be used, got to say on my third crop this year/3 years, make about 500 Baht per rai after costs.
Only really bother as it keeps the weeds and fire danger down at no cost.

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Originally Posted by Racin

Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?

Irrigation in my area is pumping water between the plants, cassava is planted on small mounds.
So tractor can be used, got to say on my third crop this year/3 years, make about 500 Baht per rai after costs.
Only really bother as it keeps the weeds and fire danger down at no cost.

We have cassava planted and have had before. If you put water lines on top of the ridges, you cannot use the tractor mounted tool for extracting the roots. If you lay the water lines between the ridges, you will squash them with the tractor. Hence my question the OP.

Originally Posted by Racin

Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?

Everything is removed before harvest harvest is the same as without irrigation then it is put back after new planting plus repairing broken PVC where needed.

Originally Posted by Racin

Originally Posted by jamescollister

Originally Posted by Racin

Do you remove all pipes and lines before harvest of the cassava? Or is it a strict manual harvest, no tractors?

Irrigation in my area is pumping water between the plants, cassava is planted on small mounds.
So tractor can be used, got to say on my third crop this year/3 years, make about 500 Baht per rai after costs.
Only really bother as it keeps the weeds and fire danger down at no cost.

We have cassava planted and have had before. If you put water lines on top of the ridges, you cannot use the tractor mounted tool for extracting the roots. If you lay the water lines between the ridges, you will squash them with the tractor. Hence my question the OP.

We dont use mounds just till the soil and plant. Some do mounds but really doesn't seem to have much benefit.

Originally Posted by beazalbob69

We dont use mounds just till the soil and plant. Some do mounds but really doesn't seem to have much benefit.

The mounds here are to keep the tubas out of the water, we get a lot of rain and if the ground gets saturated, tubas will rot.
So it really depends on the slop and water run off, have had lots of tubas rot before the rains stop.

This will be my last cassava crop, may go for corn and melons, if I can find buyers. Thing about cassava for me is there is a big buyer a few hundred meters down the road.

Originally Posted by beazalbob69

We dont use mounds just till the soil and plant. Some do mounds but really doesn't seem to have much benefit.

The benefit comes with when one harvests. Due to being grown in 'mounds' the plant is easier to lift and less of the tuber gets left in the ground.