Repairs to the misting system trunk line

-
Some time ago, a young idiot (me) forgot where the misting system trunk line was, and started digging a hole for some plants. Unfortunately, this nicked the line, which caused it to fail yesterday. So I will do the repairs, and be sure to put rocks on top to clearly indicate to the older me not to dig there in the future!

Anyway, this is a high-pressure system, so there is no such thing as a *leak*. If any part fails, even a little bit, you will have a huge gusher of water spraying into the air. So it's important to do a solid repair.

You can see where I had done a repair earlier, using brass connections. I will do the same here, and just need to get them at Sine Hardware at 54th Avenue and Myrtle here in Glendale. If I can't find them there, I will brave Home Depot for them. It's a standard brass connector, so somebody in town will have it. The last one I got at Sine, and hopefully it's not one of those kind of things that gets *discontinued*. I have taken a photo of it, which I will bring along, and I'm pretty sure I'll get the standard look from the person helping me - that they had never seen a part like it before, but maybe we can look around. Or maybe someone will look at it and instantly say, *Sure! That's a Webley-Vickers 50.80!*

I have spare line in the garage, and will splice in about five inches of it. Once the connection is secure, I will test it, and leave it above ground for a while to keep an eye on it, and then I will bury it, and put a nice big rock on it!

Update - the next morning:

Success! Sine Hardware had exactly what I needed. And, yes, I got the blank stare and concerned look from one of the guys working there, but he got some help from another associate, who looked at the photo that I brought, walked right over to the correct area, and not only found the correct item, but showed me exactly how to install it.

So, it's a *Compression Union* and *Sleeve and Insert* for 3/8" plastic tubing. I am testing the system now - you can see the mist in the photo below, and it seems to be working fine. Cool.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to tell if your cycad (sago palm) is alive or dead

-
Image
Cycads are strange plants. They're beautiful, and look like small palm trees, or large ferns. They grow very slowly, and can be very expensive, even common ones like "sago palms". But sago palms, in spite of their common name, aren't palms at all. They belong to a group of plants called cycads. They are wonderfully weird, and grow in strange ways. And sometimes they lose all of their leaves. Of course, if it were a palm tree that lost all of its leaves, you would know that the plant was dead. But it's not true of cycads. So don't dig that cycad up and throw it away! Not yet. If you've recently transplanted a cycad, and the leaves have all faded away, hang on. Take a look at the top center of the plant, at what I call "the pucker". There you will see some stubby, soft fronds, no more than an half-inch or so. At least that's what you should see. That means that the plant is still alive, and has dropped its leaves to focus on building r...
Read more

Rooting sago palm pups for more plants

-
Image
Once a sago palm ( cycas revoluta ) reaches a certain level of maturity, it starts to create pups. Like agaves, these are little plants that are exactly the same as the parent plant, only smaller. And yes, you can trim them off and grow them into new plants. This is how to do it. Cut them off from the parent plant with a sharp knife. If there are any roots at the bottom, try to save them, but chances are there won't be any. That's not a problem. The next step is rooting them. Douse the cut part and the bottom of the plant with some garden sulfur and some rooting hormone powder. Rooting hormone powder is pretty easy to find at your local Home Depot. I had to go to a real nursery to get garden sulfur. Anyway, the idea is to keep the little plant from rotting while giving it time to grow its own roots. Sago palm pups being rooted Bury them fairly deep in some free-draining mix. It should include volcanic pumice, if you can find it, and if not, you can use perlite. I ...
Read more

Growing sunflowers from Pennsylvania in Arizona

-
Image
It's October 21st, and I just received some sunflower seeds from a friend in Pennsylvania. Their season is ending and the season for planting here in Arizona is just beginning, and I'm kinda wondering if the seeds are wondering what's going on? It's spring again already? If you're new to the Phoenix, Arizona area, and are from back east it must seem kinda strange that fall and winter is our flower season, but it is. By springtime it will start to get so hot here that the flowers will die, and of course back east the season is just beginning.  Sunflowers growing in Peoria, Arizona, about a mile from where I live I've seen sunflowers blooming around my neighborhood of Glendale, which is a suburb of Phoenix, in the winter, and although I've never grown them I understand that they're easy to grow. I guess I'll find out - I learn best by doing! The seeds arrived safely, and it's my understanding that they were still connected to the spent flower (I do...
Read more