Here the strawberry growers use a half inch tubing with a drip hole every foot. You put a line down each row and fold it over at the end. Then a valve at the top of the row. Each row t's off a main line. Gives you a lot of control. I don't use plastic mulch so I don't know if that would suit your needs.

Do you mean the tubing that drips instead of tape? See link.
Someone else is trying to talk me into that. It would be $2000 just for the product, not including very high shipping. T tape for 2 years will be $160 plus shipping. That is for 6000 row feet. It does look very long lasting.

Here is a link that might be useful: like this tubing?

I never tried 1/2" header line, only 3/4" and one inch. You probably will be ok flow-wise. The punch-in fittings might fit more snugly in the larger header line, though. Mine always leak, anyway. This year I am going to make my header lines from PVC pipe, because I am tired of my punch fittings leaking.

That sounds really hIgh. I had some on some blackberries and I'm sure I didn't pay that. Maybe there are different supPliers

I use 1/2 inch pipe for my header lines. The reason is I bought about 400 feet of it along with several 100 dollars of 1/2 in irrigation fittings at an auction for $12, 8 years ago and I have been using it ever since. I have each of my hoop buildings on its own zone. Then every one of my patches is set up on its own header line. I have never had problem with getting enough water to them. I use hose splitters and usually water 3 or 4 zones at once, depending on the number of runs.

My big high tunnels had 6 beds in it with 3 or 4 runs of drip tape 48 feet long for example.

For a vegetable garden that changes every year, Drip tape, T-tape, Aqua-Traxx, (Many different names) is the way to go. Pennies a foot especially when you buy it in 5,000-6,000 foot rolls. I get 3 or 4 years out of the stuff, if you are careful and the emiters don't get plugged.

Jay

i use 1/2" for my headers. as far as drip goes, i use t-tapes with 1' hole spacing. but i don't like drip for direct seeded densely planted things in a bed, like salad mix or turnips or carrots, etc. for those i use spray stakes with 1/8" tubing out of 1/2" tubing. then if i plant those beds with tomatoes i change the spray stake out for an emitter that i place at the base of the plant. keeps the tomato foliage dry.

Jay it is nice you get 3-4 years. On Homegrown Goodness there are some that act like drip tape is throwing money away or ruining the environment or keeping you slaved to the bank. It would cost tons more for me to buy drip tubing vs tape! PLus I never know how long I will get to farm. I just really want the 1/3 zone plan and better quality tape to work this year! Plus I am gassing the gophers.

I only use 1/2" headers if I have some reason to just run a few beds at a time. Even if I'm using 3/4" headers, I can still only run about 6 200' lines at once with my pressure.
If you have the water pressure, and the scale to utilize the water, i'd go entirely with 3/4". Personally I don't like to irrigate all that much!

I have intense water pressure from the pump but once it goes through the pressure regulator that doesn't matter. I have had people say it is a flow problem not a pressure problem.
Whatever it is, the system worked well until about July and then only part worked well.

Could it be possibly a filter problem? I don't know since I haven't tried drip yet. Just a suggestion.

I had my landlord take it apart for me and it was surprisingly clean. I know there is rust in the groundwater but he said the filter looked great. So then I was stumped. Except that I did find several leaks to fix over some weeks. It is hard to hoe potatoes without whacking the tapes. I plan to pull them up, set to the side and do things like hoeing and torching this year.

I did some watering last year by dragging one row of drip tape from row to row. If you use a stick or piece of pipe, you can move it without having to bend over.