Generally, drip irrigation or soaker hoses are preferred since the loss to evaporation is significantly reduced. It also helps keep down some problems with fungus that come about with wet foliage. The initial expense might be higher but the length of time it takes to apply enough water is less so if you are on public water it might make up the difference over the course of a couple of years of use.

I would add that drip irrigation or soaker hose was the way to go too...You deliver the water where you need it and don't have to worry about all the problems that spraying water on plants can cause..

First great lookiong soil. I can only wish mine lloked that rich.

Second those squares are perfect. Wanna come build me a trellis????? :) nice job.

On the question at hand Drip irrigation would be the way to go.

I have devised a plan of 1/2 cpvc pipe and 5/8 soaker. the 5/8 soaker is a tight fit over the 1/2 cpvc. its much much cheaper then standard drip irg and you can use pvc where you dont want water and soaker where you want it.

I have yet to glue the pvc joints together. It does not seem to leak or come loose so far. That way if you need to change it around its easy. You just pull them apart and change it around.

Sorta cheap DIY drip irr using soakers hose. I have a total of $50 invested to do a 60x20 garden. Its not finished yet but I think I have enough materials to finish the job.

billinpa, thanks I put 21 tons of compost and a couple tons of sand in that will be enough for this year. Do you have pics of your setup I love making things myself sounds like a good idea.

Dale

not yet but I will try to get a few tonight if I can make it home before it gets dark.

It depends greatly on your climate and which season you will be growing in. Are you growing in summer, and does the temperature get above 32 degrees celcius? If yes, sprinklers would produce a better quality product.

I use sprinklers to settle in the planting for the first two weeks, before switching over to drip irrigation.

P.S. I think you would find drip irrigation a far wise choice than soaker hoses. Soaker hoses have a tendency to get blocked up (very small holes), and do not have a very even water output along the length of the hose.

I have been leaning towards the drip irrigation although I am not ruling anything out as of yet. I am a little confused at emitter flow rates to use for certain plants and watermelons need to be watered almost daily where my peppers do not need near that much. I am trying to get it all on a "blueprint" that I made up (above) but the emitters is my biggest issue so far but not the only issue. should I run drip tape or 1/2 in. feeder the length of the rows and then put the micro tubing with the emitters? My guess is to get the 1/2 tubing as close to the plants as I can so i do not have a bunch of micro tubing all over the place. Can someone elaborate somewhat based on the blueprint I have at the top of the page maybe it would help to steer me in the right direction.

Dale

Why not just run a 100' 1/2" lines with a valve at the header for each row of peppers? I'd probably run a seperate line snaking back and forth (with it's own valve) for the tomatoes. You can just lay in the tubing and insert the emitters directly. It doesn't look like you'll need any micro tubing. I'd probably go with 1 gph emitter for every other pepper. 1 gph emitter for every tomato. 2 gph emitters for the melons. I'd probably do the rest rest like the peppers. Get yourself a good punch tool. You're going to be putting in a lot of emitters!

Is there a specific reason to run 1gph emitters every other pepper or is it just to cut down on the cost? i would much rather run .5gph emitters to every pepper that way every pepper would get the same amount of water and none would be overwatered before the one with no emitter gets any. Would I eliminate runoff using a .5 vs a 1gph emitter? The tomatoes and the melons would be fine with those size emitters because there are not as many running at once.

Dale

Dale,
There is no reason you can't use 0.5 gph emitters for the peppers. I find the key is to make sure you have a valve at the beginning of each run so that you can water just what needs it by turning the valve. I'll try to get you a picture of what I did.
Rick

my garden is 100x100.

the first year i used all overhead sprinklers ad it worked great, except tha ti had major weed issues between the rows.

the next year i used soem over heads and some sprinkler/soaker hoses. i had fewer weed problems, but they still happened.

last year i used all soakers except in my melon patch area i used a couple of sprinklers. no weed issues to speak of inthe rowed areas. i could literally go several weeks without weeding.

this year i ran 3/4" PVC along one end of the garden and teed off at each row with a threaded tee. i put in adapters for a sprinkler system at the tees and attached my hoses there. all PVC pipe joints are threaded so that all i have to do is unscrew it and move it around. so far, it is working great. the unplanted rows i simply capped the tee and when i finally get my toms inteh ground i will jsut run the hose and hook them up. with this system i am getting a much beeter balanced water flow to my soakers than i have in the past. last year i had to run teh soakers for 2 hours to get everything watered enough, and some areas got too much. this year 1 hour of run to cover teh same area and it is just right.

i will probably go ahead and run soakers on the melon hills this year. i don't mind weeds in my melon patch, but i am gonna try the soakers as an experiment.

Dale,
Here are the pictures that I promised.

The header:

{{gwi:29438}}

The master valve, filter and pressure reducer:
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What the rows look like (ok, they're not straight):
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A couple happy tomato plants:
Brandy Boy
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Jet Star
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I hope this helps.
Rick

I'd sure hate to put in individual emitters for all those plants. If you wanted to use the lines next year, you'd be stuck with the current spacing. I did that last year and then totally changed the layout of my beds this year and had to discard most of the lines I used last year. (Well, I just put them aside since you never know when they might come in handy.) I removed the emitters, and THAT was a tedious job, leaving holes in the lines, too many to make repairing them useful.

This year I purchased four 75-foot "weeper" hoses, and though they emit water all along the line on all sides of the round hose, they work fine for my needs. I like them much better, since they're far easier to set up for my four 34-foot long beds, doubling them to make two lines of irrigation in each bed, with a few extra feet that can be curved around plants if needed. They also curve easily at the end of the beds to come back down again. I'll cover them with leaf mulch to keep the soil and lines cool. Any hose that is black or a dark color can emit extremely hot water at the height of a Southern summer.

Since I have time to hand-tend them, I don't have a header leading to the hoses this year, though I did last year. I have an open/shut valve on the end of my main hose and just attach it to each bed's weeper hose when that row needs to be watered.

I agree that those soaker hoses (the flat ones with the holes on one side) are not very satisfactory and the holes do get stopped up.

Anney,
It took me about 2 hours to put in ~350 emitters. I bought one of the professional punch tools and it really speeds up the process. I agree with the spacing. I planned the garden out so that I can reuse them year after year. Hopefully it will work out.
Rick

I have tried them both (drip and hoses), and I much prefer drip. The only con of drip is that if you have really small veggies, such as carrots, the drip spacing is insufficient (I have 12 and 18 inches drip lines). A minor deficiency is that, in the case of melons and also of tomatoes, the drip holes are too close to one another, so you have one hole near the young plant, and one or two unused holes (they will become useful as the plant grows out).

But with drip disease is minimized, the young plant gets plenty of water, and it is still more water efficient than hoses.

macheske, I love the manifold setup I will be starting mine soon and will get my order in for the main line, emitters and accessories. Nice.

Dale

Dale,
Most of the main line is just standard PVC from Lowes or HD. The items you will need to order are the filter, pressure reducer, PVC to 1/2" poly adapters, and the black transition pieces. The black transition pieces are just female to male fittings that work like a hose/hose bib so that I can take apart the system easily to till and to store for the winter. You can see one of them in the first picture, just below the 4th valve. Here is the kind of punch you want...

{{gwi:37158}}

Have fun!
Rick

is the 1/2" black poly from Lowes/HD also?

Dale

I ordered the poly. The stuff they had at Lowes/HD was an inferior grade.

Where did you order your stuff from? I have been looking at The Drip Store. Also, did you order the PVC to 1/2" poly adapters and the black transition pieces from the place you got the tubing?

Dale

The name of the website is gardendrip.com.

The PVC to 1/2" poly adapters are FITD48.
End caps are FITQ58-2.
Pressure regulator is ACCD46ADJ.
Filter is ACCD55-12.
Transition pieces are FIT50007.
Poly is TUBB37-1.
1/2 gph drippers are EMMW2205.
1 gph drippers are EMMW221.
2 gph drippers are EMMW222.
4 gph drippers are EMMB224.
Punch is ACC16-035.
Goof plugs are ACCG79.

Enjoy!
Rick

Rick, do you have a link I am coming up with a bunch of stuff for gardendrip.com but it's not giving me an on line store.

Dale

Their site is a little odd...

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Drip

Glib, Anney, Macheske:

I also use emitters. I have about an equal mix of 18" spacing and 12" spacing.

I find the 12" is perfect for carrots, corn, lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions, beets, turnips, potatoes, etc. I use 1/2 gph emitters on these.

The rest of my tubes are 18" spacing, and I usually use 1 gph emitters on them. These work perfectly for my peppers, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, muskmelons, and will do for corn.

I also use the 18" spaced lines for tomatoes, pumpkins, and watermelons. I just pull every second emitter and insert a "goof plug", giving me 36" spacing between emitters. The same tool I use to insert an emitter in the drip tube is also perfect for pulling out an unneeded emitter and inserting a "goof plug".

Tom

Tom,
I'm very familiar with a punch to punch a hole in the 1/2" line but what tool do you use to install emitters?
Thanks,
Rick

Just a little update. I have ordered the drip system and started to lay down my pvc manifold.

{{gwi:37159}}

{{gwi:37160}}

{{gwi:37161}}

Dale

Rick my drip system tool has the emitter installer on the end of the tool. Poke with one end, flip and push the emmiter in on the other end. You can hear the pop when it sets in perfectly.

Dale,
Your garden looks great. I can't wait to see all those peppers growing!
Rick

Just wanted to update my progress on the irrigation set-up. I have the manifolds and the 1/2 tube done and today I put in the emitters for the pepper section. Is it normal to have some emitters that dont drip they are actually coming out like a stream? I am noticing that they are not consistent with each other even though they are all 1 GPH emitters. I am actually a little disappointed with the way they are working. Is this normal to have this many not the same? Here are some pics of the setup before I put on the emitters.

{{gwi:37162}}

{{gwi:37163}}

Dale

Dale,
Your setup looks great! I don't think it's normal to have the emitters stream if they are 1 gph. At 4 gph it's normal. Did you get pressure compensated emitters? You might want to check your pressure. Typically you need to adjust the pressure to 25 psi. Is your filter after the pressure regulator? I would go filter, valve, then pressure reg. The idea is to have the pressure regulator the last item before the emitters. BTW...remove the little red cap on the pressure regulator and turn the screw to change the pressure.
Hope this helps.
Rick

Dale,
BTW..are planning on blowing out the header lines for the winter or taking them apart? I don't see anything in the lines that will allow you to take them apart or blow them out.
Rick

I will change the filter around today. They are all screwed together so the whole thing can be dismantled. Yes they are PC emitters, at least they say they are that was my first thought when I turned them on and I have the regulator turned all the way down it didn;t make a difference. I will trouble shoot it today and change the filter and regulator around and see what happens. If they are PC emitters should'nt they all drip the same regardless of the pressure?

Dale

The pressure compensated emitters that I know have little ridges on them. The non-PC emitters are smooth. Even the PC ones are only good up to around 55 psi. I would think that 1 gph emitters would just drip, not squirt. Higher thank 1 gph could squirt some.

Dale,
Your setup looks great. You can come work on mine anytime you like! How many square feet is that? Did you figure out how many emitters you can run at one time? I have about 3200 sq ft and can run that all at once though I like to keep some off sometimes (the reason for the valves on each line). I'm planning to expand to 4800 or even 6400 next year to plant some corn, and a few other veggies. I'll definitely need to run that area at a different time because of the limitiations of a 3/4" line. I'm thinking about trying dripline with integrated emitters for that area.
Rick

Mine is also around 3200 sq. ft. I have valves also just to shut off everything except the melons which will be watered every day. I can run everything at once if I want to.

Dale

By chance do you have some of the emmiters in backwards? Sounds kinda simple, but, a few years back I had emmiters that were all black (not 1/2 blue, red,brown, etc). The idiot installing them (me) put several in backwards, if I remember this caused a similar issue.

My two cents on drip irrigation: 12" oc drip pipe works light years better than emitter type systems.

schaaed1, these emitters are all black also and no none are in backwards. (thats funny). I believe it is a pressure issue I am getting it worked out though.

fruithack, describe your set-up a little more in detail. Do you have pics?

Dale

Rick, do you use the fertilizer pellets to fertilize through your filter? If so, what brand?

Dale

you two have got to much time and money LOL looks great both of you