Trying to find a video on PVC irrigation

11 years ago

About a year ago, maybe more, someone posted a link to a really great video of how to make a PVC irrigation system. The link in my favorites that I saved now says it is a private video.

The video featured a master gardener and in it he taught what size of hole to drill for the drip line and how many holes were recommended for several types of vegetables. He gave tips on how to hold the pipe so that the holes were all aligned properly and gave details of how to make zones with inexpensive shut-off valves.

I don't know if it was posted here or in the gardening forum.

I've searched You Tube for a similarly informative video to no avail.

If anyone knows about this I'd like some information. Maybe I can contact the owner and get permission or find it posted elsewhere.

Here is a link that might be useful: PVC Drip Irrigation

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Comments (8)

Raw_Nature
11 years ago
YouTube has several very informative videos on PVC irrigation... You can't find any? Type in, yep you guessed it "PVC irrigation" thenvideos should hit you in your eye! Let me know if you still can't find any, I'll be more specific...

Joe
milehighgirl
Original Author
11 years ago
I believe I may have found the author. I sent an email. In the meantime I found that most of the information is also posted in a .pdf file.

Here is a link that might be useful: Designing a Basic PVC Home Garden Drip Irrigation System
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It's your lucky day! I just viewed this video yesterday and emailed the link to myself. I hope this is the one you wanted! See link below. I decided to go with drip tape. 13 rows 30 feet long were less than $100 delivered. Here is a link that might be useful: PVC drip irrigation
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lehua, Thanks for your reply - much appreciated. I suppose I should have checked more into the forum archives prior to posting - would have prompted me to first check into my hydraulic specs. Our water does come from a municipal source, which obtains it's supply from local fresh water natural lakes/ponds and reservoirs. It is treated with chlorine and fluoride (1.0 mg/l) and has a moderate hardness of 68 to 84 mg/l. I just did a test by filling a 5 gal bucket from the freeze-proof garden bibb, timed it with my phones' stopwatch - and it took exactly 60 seconds to fill to the brim, which equates to 300 gal/hr. The main vegetable planting area consists of (6) 36"+ wide x 18 ft long beds, each naturally bermed about 6" above the 18" wide pathways - which are freshly covered in straw mulch each season. Each row slopes along its length, approx 6" in 18 ft., or 2.8%. We also have a couple of 42" x 12 ft wood-plank raised beds for strawberries, herbs and smaller rotating crops. An 8' x 5' onion patch, 10' x 4' raspberry patch and a 40' x 3' mixed use bed along the east garden fence - all with about a 1.5% slope. The soil composition is 12" to 18" of very rich humus, with a mix of loam + grey clay in the subsoil layers. I have been layering at least 3" of my own organic compost over each bed twice/season, which I first break down with my shredder/chipper. Water plumes have always spread very well when hose/pail watering in the past. Organic additives, such as bone meal, wood ash, and dried blood are added regularly, with limestone tilled in the Fall, if soil ph tests require it. Concentrated fish emulsion is mixed with water and applied by hand to each plant during the growing season. Due to some early blight occurring on our tomatoe and pepper plants, which was spread I believe from water ground splash, I'm thinking drip irrigation may minimize this from happening. I have not yet purchased the inline filter, 3/4" mains and 1/2" laterals, but have received the 3/4" ball valves and electronic water timer/valve I had ordered. The author of a Utah Co-op Extension article on the prototype PVC system (see link), recommends drilling 1/16" holes, in 2-3 hole clusters, spaced to align with individual plants. My plan was to dedicate each lateral to plants with similar needs, with all lateral and major pipe joints being separable to accommodate seasonal rotation and off-season storage. Since I have no experience with this yet, I was waiting for the time when my indoor grown seedlings are about ready for transplanting, before determining hole spacing. Drilling should be easy enough to do when that time comes by setting up a jig. Sorry for being long-winded - many thanks for your encouragement, and system endorsement . . . I feel less like a pioneer now. Best, Steve Here is a link that might be useful: PDF - Designing a Baasic PVC Home Garden Drip Irrigation System
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If you decide to use PVC, please bear in mind the different classes and schedules of PVC pipe. When I installed my own irrigation system, the very helpful (and very rare) irrigation expert at Home Depot said to use 1" all around the system, and I did. I've had a few pressure problems in the zones that are the greatest distance from the meter/backflow. Later on I got a Texas irrigator license, and I do a few repairs and upgrades. Here's the deal: the Home Depots in my area carry only schedule 40 PVC. Virtually all of the installations that I've run into are Class 200 pipe, which has a thinner wall and a greater interior diameter, allowing less PSI loss and lower water velocity (which is good) at a given gallons-per-minute flow. At least by Texas law (and the state velocity/friction loss charts), 13 GPM at 1" schedule 40 PVC is not allowable in a design, while 1" class 200 pipe is fine. I'll bet this varies by state. Keeping the velocity low puts less stress on the valves and heads, resulting in fewer failures over the long term. In my area, class 200 is available only at irrigation distributors. I prefer Irritrol controllers (Rain Dial, etc.) because they are well made and very easy to program and reprogram. Regarding Funny Pipe and other brands of thick poly swing pipe, consider using a swing joint for each head, especially if the heads will be in high-traffic areas, like along a sidewalk or curb. You can buy these ready-made. I make my own (for repairs) with two 1/2" male thread to barb elbows, and two 1/2" male to female elbows, and a length of Funny Pipe. A little silicone spray helps start the barbed fittings into the poly. This combination allows a full range of movement. I leave the threaded connections fairly loose and flexible to allow for adjustments while covering the hole, and to maintain some degree of flex when the head is stepped or driven on. There is probably a lot of friction loss through these four elbows and the the poly pipe. I've never seen friction loss charts on these parts, but I know that they work very well. Hope this helps.
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Hi tdscpa, Thanks for your suggestions. I had checked out the rainbird and other websites but I did not see explanations on having the manifold at the water faucet with the lateral lines going 25 feet underground verses having the main line going 25 feet under ground with the manifold in the irrigation area. But see my comments below. Hi homr, Thanks for taking the time to key in all that information. Especially explaining the pressure loss problems. But it looks like my whole plan will have to be revised due to what I learned. See my comments below. REVISED PLAN: Thanks to all who contributed to this thread. I really appreciate it. I talked to a city tech and he gave me a link to city ordinances which deal with irrigation systems. From what I read, it appears that the backflow preventer (BP) has to be installed in the main line prior to any branching. This means the BP will have to be installed near the front corner of our property where the main line first enters our property. This will require longer runs from the BP to the irrigation areas in the front and back yards. I'll have to check with a licensed plumber with experience in irrigation systems confirm whether the BP has to be installed before any branching. But it looks like I have even bigger problems if the BP has to be installed at the front corner of our property: 1. If the BP has to be installed at the front corner of our property, the main line will have to go across our concrete driveway and entry sidewalk to get to our front yard. IÂm reluctant to cut our concrete driveway and entry sidewalk to do this. 2. The path from the BP at the front corner to the back yard is all concrete. That side of the house has concrete from the house to the hollow tile perimeter wall. A DIFFERENT QUESTION: Any licensed plumbers reading this? Is there a universal code that says all main lines have to be buried in the ground? Or is it "generally" permissible to run a main line above ground? (Like attached to our hollow tile perimeter wall above the concrete sidewalk?) Assuming I can get the main line from the BP at the front corner to the back yard, I will have to run the line around the house (buried under ground) to get it to the front yard without having to do item-1. (The other side of the house does not have concrete.) Sorry for the long post. I guess there is no such thing as a simple drip irrigation system if it is to be done right, Sky
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larry_gene
11 years ago
Didn't see this in the pdf:

Keep in mind that the water source is best applied to a central point in the main line, especially if there are many lateral drip lines in the system.

Each lateral drip line should have about equal pipe volume (diameter x length), or else you will find some lines barely dripping while others make small geysers.

If your system has a control valve for each lateral, then the above items are far less serious.
Raw_Nature
11 years ago
I was interested in making a PVC drip system... But I soon realized that it is far more expensive than buying the trusty premaid drip tape... Why don't you save yourself some money, time and frustration and buy something you knows going to work? I thought inwould save big bucks making it myself as well, but ends up your better off buying it.. just a thought

Joe
milehighgirl
Original Author
11 years ago
Raw_Nature,

I tried them last year but found I could not put more than one hose because they would not leak if there was too much length. The only way it would work is if I cut them shorter and attached them to a main lateral individually. Even though I have good water pressure here they wouldn't drip enough to actually water, and they watered the whole length which I didn't need. They may be okay for an actual row of vegetables but not trees.

I had a very old one of these soaker hoses and it worked far better than the new ones I purchased from Home Depot. I think they were even the same brand but the quality was not there. The fittings came off on a few of them, and I returned them.
steve333_gw
11 years ago
MileHigh, I assume you were having troubles with the weep everywhere hose; if so you might want to check out the preformed "soaker hose" which the drip irrigation places sell. This is different than the hoses of the same name at the big box stores which weep over their entire surface. They are solid PE hose with an emitter installed at regular intervals (1' up to 3'). The emitters are pressure compensating, so you can vary the elevation of the hose and still get even coverage. I have found that this type of drip and the T-tape type works much better than the big box weeps everywhere stuff. (you will need a filter and pressure regulator with these emitter hoses)

Regardless of what type of emitters/hose, you will need to calculate the flow and pressure of the hose or other water source feeding the system. You need to be sure you can feed the system with the flow it needs at the pressure it requires. Simple math if you are using the drip emitters but for the weep everywhere hoses you probably need a pressure gauge in the system that you can read to figure out how much length your source can support.
Raw_Nature
11 years ago
Milehighgirl:

"i used one of them last year" what did you use, soaker drip, what brand,where from, be specific. If you were having trouble with drip tape, you are going to have problems with PVC... I think you are supposed to always have laterals coming off the main line with valves to solve th problem you had.. As Steve said, you have to plan it out before hand... I an ready to buy drip tape any day now, I hope you guys would tell me about any concerns/ problems you guys had with it before a waste hundreds of dollars. Hope this helps

Thanks,
Joe
milehighgirl
Original Author
11 years ago
Well he got back to me and he gave me these links. Thank you all for your input!

4 page fact sheet:
Designing a Basic PVC Home Garden Drip Irrigation System
http://extension.usu.edu/htm/publications/file=14535

28 minute broadcast:
Local Channel 10 Home and Garden Show: PVC Drip Irrigation
http://www.local10.tv/player/player/vod/flv/garden-pvcdrip/flv

PowerPoint presentation/script:
Juab County PVC Drip Irrigation System
http://extension.usu.edu/juab/htm/horticulture

This post was edited by milehighgirl on Thu, Mar 14, 13 at 1:45

Trying to find a video on PVC irrigation

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