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Narrow bed irrigation?

18 years ago

I have a 3' wide by 40' long bed in whichI have new bamboo (yes, it is well contained) planted.

The landscape contractor put in 10 half circle rainbird sprinklers dialed way back (3' radius actual, rated 16'). This works, but the problem is that he put it on an existing irrigation zone, and for the bamboo soil to get watered adequately everything else on the circuit gets over-watered.

My idea is to use enough 1/2" dripline/tape to get to my desired watering rate, which I think I need to be about 100GPH to match the watering time that's best for the rest of the circuit.

My questions:

1. Does this seem like it should work/is it a good idea? It seems backwards, but I want to use dripline to increase the watering rate compared to what conventional sprinklers deliver (because they are dialed way back).

2. Should I use all 10 risers I have available (i.e., with short lines), or should I use only one or two of them.

3. Does 1/2" drip tape with 12" spacing and 0.6GPH emitters seem like an appropriate choice? I would like the lines above the ground but below the bark mulch (the large bark chunks, not shredded).

4. I'm unclear about what fittings I should use to connect the existing risers to the drip line/tape. (Both the connections and the requirements for filters and pressure regulators).

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Brian

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Comments (2)

eltigre
18 years ago
Can you just seperate your bamboo narrow zone into its own zone control?
bglenden
Original Author
18 years ago
> Can you just seperate your bamboo narrow zone into its own zone control?

Unfortunately not without digging a lot of new trenching through the lawn/garden, which we are trying to avoid (if I'd been more clued in when the landscape contractor was doing his work I'd have had it done at the same time, but now it would be a major pain).

Cheers,
Brian
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