Amy,

Rate these items in order of importance please. The most important being first or on top.

Money
water conservation
irrigation coverage
ease of operation
automatic operation

Info needed to help design system:
water source pressure(psi) and flow(gpm)?
Water source from the street or house?

Don't do brands. A few people have strong brand opinions and you can read past threads that discuss this. JMHO. Aloha

Hello Lehua, sorry it took me a little while to get back to you.

Order of importance IÂd have to go:

Money
Ease of operation
Water conservation
Irrigation coverage
Automatic operation

IÂm afraid I donÂt know much about psi, and nothing about gpm (I read a thread of how to test, so IÂll have to do that, but canÂt just yet, donÂt have my water up and running for the season yet). PSI: I called the city, and the city took into account water pressure at hydrants near me and took elevation into consideration and estimates my psi is between 58 and 62 at the bib. My water source is at my house, but then needs to travel slightly uphill for 125Â before it gets to my garden. The city estimated this would reduce my pressure down to the mid 50Âs at the garden itself. I may buy a pressure guage, but donÂt really want to. I donÂt like buying things IÂll only use once, but if necessary, I will.

Aloha to you as well!

Amy,

Here is an easy step to find out your gallons per minute flow (gpm). Fill a large enough container with water from your source faucet and time how long it takes to fill up. Use a one, two or usually a five gallon bucket to make an easier time of it. Next estimate the vertical height from the water source elevation to your garden ground elevation. Estimate how many of your heights would be needed to reach your garden vertically. Your psi is standard house pressure and very good to run drip. No problem there. Are you willing to dig a 12" deep trench and place and glue pvc pipe all the way to your garden. Doing everything yourself will keep the cost way down. Let me know these facts and I can help you design and install your system at the minimum cost to you. Aloha till then.

Lehua:

"Next estimate the vertical height from the water source elevation to your garden ground elevation. Estimate how many of your heights would be needed to reach your garden vertically."

Is this to determine psi at the garden itself? And I don't quite understand the second sentence, could you clarify please?

As far as the trench goes, it's not something I want to do. Lots of trees and rocks and ditches to contend with. I recently bought two new hoses (150' worth) to get to the garden. I bought a supposed lifetime warranty hose (Gilmore). I wanted as few connections as possible, and one that could remain out in the winter, which this one claims it can handle.

gpm: I'll work on the bucket test as soon as my water gets turned on and I'll post again.

Thanks!!

Lehua, here is some more info:

At the bib, a five gallon bucket was filled in 37 seconds. At the garden, at the end of 150' of hose and slight incline, a five gallon bucket was filled in 51 seconds. I would estimate the elevation difference is about 10 feet.

Mahalo!!

hi Amy,

Your pressure drop from house to garden is about 5 psi. Not significant. Your rate will be about 8 gpm. The reduction in flow is because of pipe wall resistance to water from good pressure trying to move water through a small diameter rough garden hose. PVC pipe is much smoother and with a diameter of about 1" up to the garden will give negligible loss in flow at the garden. At the house install a 1" pvc shutoff ball valve and a little further along the pipe install an in-line check valve(one-way valve). At the garden install a vacuum breaker shutoff valve that is in the air about 6" higher than the highest part of your garden. Locate this VB at the side of your garden that is the highest so the garden slopes away from it or is even with it. From the VB pipe it down to your garden ground level and install your pressure reducer 1" in-line fitting. Reduce and adapt your 1" pvc to manifold your drip lines. I believe what you are planning will handle 8 gpm. It will be just a mater of how long you will need to irrigate for your growing conditions. You control everything from the manual ball valve at the house. The check valve just keeps your mainline full and not back feed to the house if there is a break anywhere. This probably the cheapest way to go and not automate or restrict your flow rate. Good luck. JMHO. Aloha

Run straight 1GPH emitter tubes of different lengths, placed about a foot apart.

A single emitter tube can be 25 feet long before water pressure drop-off is a problem, and you can use a couple hundred feet of it on a single 3/4" supply line (depends on water pressure).

If you have a pressure problem with the number of emitter tubes needed, install another line of 3/4 inch supply tubing. Just cut the overloaded supply line in half and cap it, connect the new line to the tail of the old line so you aren't plugging dozens of holes. With a "hose switcher" fixture, you could bring one hose over and switch it to the desired supply line.

========================== main poly line at top of garden
\ \ \ \ emitter tubes for plants

Thank you both for your input! Being an extreme newbie, I will do some research so I can better understand your suggestions.

Lazygardens I think I get the gist of what you are saying, but I need to do some research on emitter tubes specifically, and how they are the same/different from drip lines, where to buy them, are they pressure regulated etc.

Lehua, I need to do some research into some of the products you mentioned. Also, are you thinking in terms of PVC all the way from the bib to the garden?

Thanks again!!

Oops, sorry about the confusion. We have multiple household members all on one computer.

Amy

Amy,

Yes. Spend a little more and configure a hose-bib off your riser before your vacuum breaker shut-off and be able to use a hose instead of your irrigation around the garden when you need to. 1" pvc is not much more costly than 3/4" and give less pressure loss and more flow and if you need to expand your garden you have the capacity to.

The reason you did the flow test was so that you design your drip lines and not run out of pressure. Also if your drip lines run downhill they gain some pressure that is lost at each outlet hole in the line.

Do some research and ask question. Forum members will relate their experiences and knowledge to help you along like lazygardens. I can taste the fresh vegetables and smell the flowers now. Time to plant soon. There is plenty of info on the internet. Aloha

Fusa -
Emitter tubes = drip lines
Typically they are 1/8 inch tubing with a 1/2 Gallon per hour emitter every 6 inches. Buy at Home Depot, where they have a whole aisle of drip irrigation with brochures and info.

then there is "Spaghetti tubing" - 1/8 inch tubing that doesn't leak, used where you don't want water. I use it between the big supply lines and the emitter tubing.

Amy,

Here is a site about T-tape. The most basic least expensive drip systems and easiest to install as well as the easiest to remove when doing prep work in your garden. The the flow rate for 100 ft length is 40 gph and around $12 per 100 ft roll. You would have to install a 15 psi in-line pressure regulator just before your manifold lateral that runs your separate drip T-tape lines along your beds. Anyway this is one option. You have 8 gpm x 60 min/hr equals 480 gallons per hour source. You could run about 10 each 100 ft T-tape lines all at once. This drip line gives you about twice the water output that the emitter tube line does. The only difference is cost and the time it takes you to irrigate and ease of installation. You now have the tools to make decisions. We can help answer questions and fine tune your decisions. But most important get your garden growing. Aloha

http://www.wateryourlandscape.com/dripirrigation/products/driptape?gclid=CMulxJyG_KACFUiE7QodJCgVvQ

Thank you both! I really do feel like I have the information I need now to make a decision. I will decide this weekend sometime and go from there. Thank you again, I really appreciate it!