Bill,
Unfortunately, I have been unable to find any commercial source for the
"Garden Dig-It" unit your link describes. I suspect it is no longer on
the market. That would argue in favor of a "home manufacture" approach
to obtaining one.
Years ago, when we were doing pre-plant soil fumigation for orchard
replant problem control, we made soil probes using standard pipe and
fittings. We used 3/4" or 1" pipe, a threaded "T" for the input and 90
o output w/ a short 6" stub (capped) on the far side of the "T" to
provide an additional hand access point to press the probe down into the
ground. The long ("business") end of the probe was a 42" length of pipe
that was screwed into the "T". The bottom end of the long pipe had a 2
- 3" length bolt w/ the threads ground off, just the right diameter to
fit inside the long pipe and the bolt head built up to a tapered
round-pointed tip to enable penetration into the soil. The bolt had an
elongated oval slot (~0.5" length x 1/8" width) cut through the shank
starting at about 1" above the bolt head; then a single 1/8+" diam. hole
was drilled through the bottom of the long pipe at ~1" above the bottom
end, the modified bolt inserted into the pipe and turned so that the
holes lined up, and a 1/8" diam brass rod pushed through the holes (to
allow the end bolt assembly to slide back against the bottom of the pipe
to seal it when pushed into the ground and to allow the bolt to slide
out from the pipe to open the pipe end when jerked back up after the
probe had reached the desired depth for fumigant application -- allowing
the fumigant to disperse from around the bolt shank in the pipe into the
surrounding soil). We even added a brass ball-valve on the inlet side
to allow us to shut off the fumigant once we finished the injection so
the fumigant wasn't spewing out of the tip under pressure as we pulled
the probe out of the ground. The root-needle fertilizer injector units
available from the garden centers have a very similar design (but much
smaller and no effective shutoff valve) that allows the water pressure
to drill the probe's path down into the root zone.
I do have photos (& diagrams) - somewhere in my computer & 35mm slide
collection - of the probes we made. The question would be how to get
them on the web. I'm pretty unskilled at that aspect of webpages -- I
suppose I could send them to Jon Clement and he could post them and
provide a link. If there is interest in that, I will look for them.
My point is that the probe you are talking about for hydro-drilling
could easily be made in a similar manner. The difference would be in
the pipe bottom structure. Instead of being a sliding tip, one might
find a solid tip with a central hole would work better??? One could
simply plug the pipe end with a piece of tight-fitting rod w/ a central
hole drilled in it to provide an outlet for the water. I suspect one
would need to have some lateral outward & downward-angled holes to
facilitate a lateral "drilling" function.
Any thoughts on how the bottom of the probe/drill should be designed for
maximum efficacy / drilling efficiency? The photo in your link looks to
have a straight-shot stream coming out of the probe bottom end.
Harold L.
--
Dr. Harold Larsen
Res. Pathologist& Ext. Fruit Dis. Specialist
Colo. St. Univ., WCRC - Orchard Mesa
3168 B 1/2 Road
Grand Junction, CO 81503-9621
Ph: (970) 434-3264, x-205
FAX: (970) 434-1035
EMail: [email protected]
On 2/12/2010 8:30 AM, Fleming, William wrote:
Wish I could be provide pictures but my drill is 600 miles and a
decade away.
Better yet I found a similar device that's very economical [weblink
deleted - HL].
It doesn't have a big tip like mine did but says it will bore an 8" hole.
I used a 400 gallon air blast sprayer, fan turned off, pressure set at
80 psi. The hose to the drill needs to be at least ¾", preferably
heavy duty enough to drag around rough ground.
With a 100' hose I could drill holes 5-6 rows on either side of the
sprayer before it needed to be moved. 75-100 holes could be drilled
per 400 gallon tank.
The way you form a pipe into a point is to first cut a series of
touching triangles out of one end. You end up with a jagged edge that
looks like a crown. Then just hammer the triangles inward so the edges
and points touch, weld together.
**/Bill Fleming/**
**/Montana/****/ State University/**
**/Western Ag Research Center/**
**/580 Quast Ln/**
**/Corvallis/****/, MT 59828/**
**/(406)961-3025/**
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