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Irrigation System Construction Photos – Finca Alzamora, UPRM Campus

An irrigation system was designed and constructed for an organic fruit tree orchard in the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez campus farm, Finca Alzamora (Lat 18.220247°, Lon -67.145497°, see Figure 1).  The system has a capacity of irrigating up to 60 trees at a rate of 25 gallons per hour.  Currently there are approximately 30 small trees at the site.

Figure 1. The organic fruit orchard is located on the left half of the hill.

The system consists of a 1.25 in. PVC mainline laid on the slope and 8 3/4 in. PVC laterals oriented along the topographic contours.  All PVC pipe will be buried 1 ft below the surface (Figure 2).  Two-gallon per hour pressure compensating emitters used.  Up to five drip emitters or micro-spray emitters can be used.  The system header is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2. 1.25 in. Mainline and 3/4 in. lateral PVC tubing.

Figure 2. Irrigation system header and mainline. The header includes a ball valve, air vacuum relief valve, cumulative water meter, filter and pressure gauge.

Numerous students from Dr. Pablo Payam’s organic fruit production course and my irrigation course helped to construct the system.  Figure 4 shows students gluing together pieces of PVC pipe.  Click here to view more photos.

Figure 4. UPRM Agronomy students helping to construct the irrigation system.

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