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sand point well

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herodotus
Join Date: Aug 2013
Posts: 6 minnesota
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2013-08-24          187927


not sure if this is the correct forum to post a well question but hear goes or you can redirect me-I have a 10 acre property in western Wisconsin which currently does not have electricity or water - I would eventually need irrigation for about a 4 acre tilled area -about two acres in row vegetables and about an acre in apple trees and about an acre in fruit bushes -Would a sand point type of well be big enough for my future irrigation needs or would you recommend another type of well ? Thinking of self installing a sand point well and then some drip irrigation -what size pipe for the sandpoint well and what size shallow well jet pump and I believe an expansion tank -and advice on sizing sand point for 4 acres possibly and installation tricks -thanx



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sand point well

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richwaugh
Join Date: Mar 2010
Posts: 96
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2013-08-25          187928


My guess is that a sand point well isn't going to supply enough water for that much irrigation, but only a local well person can really answer that question. It will all depend on how much water is available and at what depth as to what type of well you're going to need.

If driving your own sand point, you going to be severely limited on how deep you can go and how big a point you can drive. Unless you have a pile driver/derrick at your disposal, you won't be able to drive anything bigger than a 2" point to a depth of maybe 25-30 feet if your soil is sandy loam or sand. If there's rocks, you'll be stopped dead.

Your neighbors may have some experience with this that they can pass on, or contact a local well driller. Your county geologist should be able to tell you what type of soil you have to deal with. The county extension agent can tell you how much water your crops are going to need based on your local conditions.

If we assume you have soil that will allow you to drive a 2" sand point to 30' deep, the next issue is recover rate. How fast will that hole fill with water to a depth of 10' below the surface? That would mean that you have 20 feet of 2" pipe full of water, which is a bit over 3 gallons of water. Your well would need to be able to fill that pipe in one minute in order for you to yield 180 gallons per hour delivery rate. That isn't a lot of water by any means. So you can see that recovery rate is the big factor in what sort of well you'll need.

To irrigate two acres of row crops and two acres of trees/shrubs I'd think you would really want a 4" well as a minimum and probably a 6". The depth will be a factor of soil type and recovery rate, of course. Most of Minnesota is pretty wet so I doubt you'll have much problem getting water, it's just a matter of getting enough when you need it.

Drip watering saves a lot of water, but the water has to be very clean in order for drip irrigation to work. You may need to have a filter system on the well in order to use drip watering. You also need a minimum pressure of about 30 psig, so you will need an expansion tank. The size tank you'll need will be governed by how much water you need to use and what your well can deliver, but I'd say a 60 gallon bladder-type tank would probably be adequate. ....


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kthompson
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 5275 South Carolina
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2013-08-25          187930


Have never put down a well nor helped with one.

In my part of the world they did drive a two or so inch well down and yes at 20 feet often good water flow. (we are about 20 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and not many feet above sea level)

But driving a well down here gave way to "washing" it down years ago. Is that possibly an option to give you any more diameter or depth? ....


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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2013-08-26          187935


As Kenny mentioned washing a well point down is commonly done by anybody who knows what they're doing. It's pretty easy to put in sand point down 35 to 50 feet with nothing more than two hands and a garden hose from a water tank provided you know what you're doing.

Basically you run water down the into the well-point not up, this puts water at the bottom of the hole and as you jig the pipe and the well-point up and down in the hole it causes the mud to go up the hole replaced, by freshwater behind it.

A sand point well will provide enough water for what you want to do but you will need to run it almost continuously into some sort of cistern or holding tank and then pump that as required

Best of luck. ....


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