I will help you answer a few of your questions, the rest I would talk to a supplier about it.

If your drip tape runs down hill, things will be watered more at one end. I have noticed this with my movable buildings as they move up and down the slope. If you water well on one end, you are really soggy at the other. In a wet year, it isn't bad, but in a dry year (like now) it is more noticeable. If they run across the slope, I don't seem to have a problem.

I don't throw away drip tape. I buy the medium weight stuff. I use it over and over. If you bury it, you just need to be careful when you pull it out not to over stretch it. Most of mine is just laying on the surface, so moving it isn't a problem. I don't roll mine up either. I just drain them to make sure water doesn't sit and freeze in them. I pull them together and let them lay at the edge of the field. Tried rolling them up and it was more of a headache than it was worth. My oldest drip tape is 3 or 4 year old.

For cost, I would go with drip tape. Mine costs $0.02 a foot delivered. Much cheaper than drip tubing.

Jay

Thanks Jay,

I intend to go across the slope rather than down. The elevation over the 75 feet might vary by 1', end to end .44 psi variance. Is that more or less change than what you have? From quite a bit of experience I can safely say that the tubing is never that accurate either.

Where do you get tape for .02? I will probably get the 15 max. psi stuff and run it at around 10psi. I just ordered 1000 feet, a filter and pressure reducer to experiment with. I know it's much cheaper in larger bulk, but I want to check it out first.

Thanks.

I get mine from Berry Hill Irrigation. I looked at it today and the prices have gone up some since the last time I ordered a roll. Still very reasonable and very fast turn around on orders. That is what I like!

Jay

Here is a link that might be useful: Berry Hill Drip

We bought a truck patch system from Growers Solutions for less than $300 total. It is big enough for 50 rows 50' long along with everything that we will need except the water supply. You might check them out. I know I've called and spoke to someone there, he was able to answer all my questions. I've spoke to him about greenhouse questions, also. Very helpful. I would really recommend them.

i can drip about 600-650' at a time using a 5/8" garden hose of about 250' without any filter but with a 10lb pressure reducer. there's also a plastic valve right before the pressure reducer. this is off my home water supply which has a 30/50 pressure switch on it. i use a PE 1/2" header. with a larger supply line then my 5/8" garden hose you should be able to do more than this.
as jay suggested you can ask the supplier or manufacturer to help with figuring what size line you would need.
for beds of densely planted things like salad mix lettuce, braising mix, onions, etc. i don't think drip works very well and i use spray stakes instead.

I can see that some of the large rolls are very close to .02 per foot at Berry Hill, Jay.On the one year stuff, if it needed to be tossed that wouldn't bother me at all. 1/2 of a small watermelon pays for 100 feet! They have good options for dripper spacing and gph too. Actually, the electricity saved not pumping water to the garden will pay for the T-tape and accessories very quickly.

Thanks Marla, I am going to buy bulk if my test package works out. This could be a big improvement to what I am doing....one of many improvements needed.

Randy, Is the 650' one run or multiple runs off a manifold or main line? Is your tape on level ground or are there some ups and downs?

My booster pump is set for the same thing, 30/50 and everything from the pump to the garden is 1" schedule 80. I can turn it off and see what happens with the normally pressurized 1" line on gravity, since everything is down hill from the water tanks. It didn't work well that way for 1/4' tubing..but the tape operates on much lower pressure. The goal though, is to definitely to get off the booster system and some size pipe will do the trick.

I did buy a couple of the cheap inline spring type pressure reducers to transition to the tape from whatever pipe I eventually use.

Thanks.

One thing to think about, if you might freeze, be sure to put some blow-outs on any permanently placed piping. Even a garden hose can/and will blow out if left out when frozen. Believe me, I've done it. Also, don't leave Ys on hydrants, I've had brass ones blow out.

Marla

Drip tape will need at least 10-12 psi. If you can't make that much with gravity, you will need the low-pressure emitters and tubing.

Marla, We do occasionally get a little ice on the car windshields but freezing has not harmed any plumbing in the 8 years we have been here....nobody around here ever talks about it happening.

Cole, I actually have to reduce the pressure a little at the top of the sloping garden and a little more so, as the irrigation zones go down the hill. Not a bad problem to have.

Frost wouldn't hurt, but ICE could. You should be ok.

the 650' is 13 50' lines running across a downhill slope so that the first drip tape line is uphill from the last. they are all barbed into the 1/2" PE line.
drip tape (at least the t tape i'm using) is limited to 10 lbs pressure or it will burst.
i roll it up on hose reels and reuse it. repair any breaks with a coupling fitting.
gets pretty cold here. no problem with freezing.

Sounds good Randy, Thank you. I've been studying a lot and it looks like this stuff is going to make growing a lot easier all around, and less expensive. I'll get some of those splice couplers for emergency repairs.

Holy Smokes! Free shipping and the drip components are here as of this afternoon. This was from Drip Depot.I didn't really crunch the numbers out for the best online deal on this small order, so can't yet say I recommend them, but it was fast.

They sent two lollipops as a thank you, next time I'll have to put in the comments of the online order that I have 3 kids!

Tell the kids that the lollipops are for mom and dad.

"Tell the kids that the lollipops are for mom and dad."

You're supposed to put a smiley face, or something, when you joke like that, Marla.

Well, I have my first zone set up. The soak pattern with he 8" emitter spacing is perfect for row crops. Thanks for the pointers!

I just ran the end of the feeder into a 5 gal bucket to find the flow. Gravity with a 1" pvc pipe gave about 1000 GPH of flow.