Cistern

20 years ago

I just wanted to let everyone know that has water concerns, that a cistern works pretty darned good! Since the greenhouse just went up, and as a way to have water back in that part of the field, we bought a holding tank. It's a huge durable round plastic tank, with a 16" opening in the top and a lid. It holds 1,550 gals of water. We just got it all hooked up yesterday by running a gutter off the back of the barn. It rained 3/4" last night, and we now have 1,200 gallons of water. It worked so well, that now we need to figure out an over flow. Water is still a problem for me out in my rows, but am considering another gutter for the front of the barn. It has a much smaller roof, but still would be helpful. There is a place we can get 50 gal. barrels for 10.00 each, so if we connect 20 of those, that would give up another supply of water for the field during the crucial times. Just a thought, and wanted to let you all know how well catching the rain water works.

Cheryl

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Comments (4)

honeybunny442
20 years ago
Cool! Congratulations, Cheryl!
Susan
Miss EFF
20 years ago
Horse troughs work well to catch water off barns and they hold 125 gal. We have been using rain water for the last 3 years --- I now have the capacity to catch 3000 gals. We use sump pumps to pump water to the garden. Works great --- only problem I have had is last summer when we had no rain fall. But I took care of that too with a new well (OUCH!) in the fall.

Cathy
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flowerfarmer
20 years ago
That was going to be my question. Do you then pump the water into the greenhouse? Or, is it gravity fed? We also had a new 6" well put in last spring. OUCH is right.

Anyway, Cheryl, congratulations on your holding tank. And, it sounds like your greenhouse is up and functioning. Here's to a successful season!!!

Trish
Miss EFF
20 years ago
There may be one other problem in the future -- the growth of algae in a light tank. We made a filter system out of a mineral tub, sand, and a check valve. We just bring the water in through the bottom of the tub -- it perculates through the sand and goes out the top. Check valve keeps it from "washing" back into the tank. So far -- it works great.