Drip Irrigation for you garden plants

14 years ago

Hello all and Happy Easter. Has anyone used drip irriagation in the mid sized gardens? (45' x 100') I was thinging about it this year. I was going to use a 1/2" or 3/4" main line with Drip Irrigation Emitters, JAIN-Turbo Key Plus Drippers

Non-pressure compensated, Take apart, turbulent flow emitters 1 GPH output. So whatdoes everyone think? I know it's alot of set up work but I think it would help out all the main plants instead of using a sprinker over the whole garden. Thanks Frank

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nygardener

14 years ago

I use a system similar to Dan's. It consists of Â½" mainline tubing along the top of the garden with Â¼" dripline running the length of the beds. Works great and wastes very little water. At the head of the system is a timer, filter, and pressure regulator. During the hottest weather I set it to water three days a week, at intervals in the early morning.

Mine's from Dripworks. They're very helpful and knowledgeable, and will plan your system for you for free if you give them a sketch of your garden layout.

Last year I added a separate set of lines (on a separate timer) that are connected to misters that are mounted on stakes and spray downwards. Between each mister and the mainline is a shutoff valve. This lets me mist freshly-seeded beds often enough to keep them moist until germination Â a few times a day in hot weather.

They're great labor-savers, and also let me be away from the garden for days or weeks.

The biggest drawback is that you can't harvest mechanically, weed-whack, use a garden fork, etc. in beds that have dripline in them (or you'll tangle or cut the lines). So I wind up doing edge trimming, weeding, and harvesting by hand, or pulling out the lines temporarily in order to harvest an entire bed or fork in compost. Elevated sprinklers alongside the beds would reduce these problems, at the expense of wasted water and more chance for disease and fungus due to wet foliage. How do others deal with this trade-off?

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Comments (7)

organicdan
14 years ago
Frank,

I am using the RainBird drip irrigation of 1/2" and 1/4" lines. Some ofthe the 1/2" lines are have drip regulation at 1 GPH spaced at 18". Some of the 1/4" lines are drip emittered at 9" spacing. There is a pressure regulator and filter which cuts off the system if below 30 lbs. For wider spacing plants I have 1 & 2 GPH emiiters to insert into the 1/2" line. For individual plants I can also use the inserted emitters and feed via 1/4" tubing affixed with a bug screen.

It works great and saves a lot of time in hand watering.

I do like the 3/4" line you have as it maintain better pressure over distance. I think you will find it a real blessing.

My usual material source is discontinuing it and has it marked down 60-75% on all components. I stocked up for a few more years until I local another source.

The rotation of my beds means stripping the system down each year and assembling for the new configuration. You might find it a great idea to lay out your lines before seeding or transplanting. In place you have the emitters as a spacing guide. For individual plants you can sort your pre-cut pieces for easy adaptation to the new layout.

When stripped I cut off about 1/2" of tubing where the ribbed connectors may have stretched the tubing and potentially leak duringthe next year.

Enjoy the drip irrigation.
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mystic_wanderer
14 years ago
I am using a cheaper system that is less sophisticated. PVC pipe. Check out the link for one such system used by a university agricultural extension. There are others around that you can find by way of both Google and searching in these forums.

Here is a link that might be useful: PVC Drip irrigation system
lantanascape
14 years ago
The first year that I had my 1/2" pipe running to 1/4" drip tubing, it was fantastic. I pulled everything out at the end of the year and stored it, but when I set it up the next year, much of the 1/4" line was plugged by hard water deposits, or just generally not watering evenly. I think with my new garden, I'll stick with the 1/2" line with strategically placed drip emitters that can be cleaned or replaced if they clog. A drip system coupled with mulch does save a ton of water though, and prevents spread of disease.
jonhughes
14 years ago
NYGardener wrote:
" How do others deal with this trade-off? "

I use black Poly 1/2" with 1/4" soaker hose on every bed ,as a system it works great,and if the need arose (it doesn't) ...but if it did... I could pull it up and lay it aside and till away and then put it right back (like a blanket" but my soil is two feet deep and is so lush and loamy that I "till" just with my hands.....

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Here is a link that might be useful: Awesome Soil
aubade
14 years ago
I was thinking of putting in a new drip irrigation system using poly tubing and t-tape.

I currently have long soaker hoses snaked around my raised beds, just the regular kind I got at home depot. Unfortunately, in just 2 summers it got many holes so that's why I'm thinking of putting in something better.

I have two questions though -
Currently, as you can kind of see in the pic below - I have plants both in the raised beds and in the ground. So I have the soaker hose going up and down in and out of the beds, with parts of it buried in the ground. I've read that these other types of drip irrigation need to be on a mostly level surface - so would it be a problem that I'd lose pressure and not be able to have them arranged like this?

My 2nd question is this: I was thinking of using the t-tape (http://www.groworganic.com/item_IRP416_TSX_TTape__15_mil_8_emitter_spac.html) rather than 1/4 soaker hose b/c it is so much cheaper. Will I be sorry later, b/c the t-tape will quickly get clogged?

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denninmi
14 years ago
I used T-tape in the past. It was wonderful for the plants, but I had to give it up. I was putting out about 3000 feet of it on my main garden every year. And, I was getting 2 or 3 vole cuts into it every day. Got sick of patching. They found it an easy water source.

Went back to overheads. Not as good for the plants, not as efficient, but the voles don't chew into the black flexible pipe supply lines, too thick I guess.

Stupid, stupid voles.

Want to do humanity a REAL favor -- invent a better rodent control method.

Drip Irrigation for you garden plants

nygardener

Comments (7)

organicdan

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