I dabbled in this at my former home with my patio garden so I can't offer a lot. That being said....tomatoes and peppers do better without any water on their leaves because of soil splash diseases, so make sure they only have the "drips". The okra, cukes & pole beans can have the low profile sprays. Not sure which part of the state you're in so that would depend on how the timers would be set. Tomatoes and peppers should probably be watered every day as the summer heats up. The others could do fine with alternate day watering...until it gets REALLY hot then I water everyday when they look like they need it.

Everything will be set up on a drip so there will be no soil splash or spray. I was thinking okra, which does not require much water might pair with peppers or do peppers require more water?

Zoning is smart. Keep in mind you can add individual row valves as well. If I get around to it this year, I'm going to add them to my tomato zone so I can more easily withhold water from ripening plants on a per row basis as desired.

Yes... individual row valves would be a good idea also. How are your zones set up?

I've used it for plants in containers and I've used it for hanging baskets on the front porch, but I haven't used it on in-ground plants. I just use soaker hoses or hand-watering for plants in the ground.

The company at the link below has a very informative website and catalog, and they have a free design service that will help you plan the layout of your drip irrigation system. There's also an irrigation forum here at GW.

I think how much water plants need depends a lot on your soil and how well it drains and how well it holds water. My okra seldom gets any water at all, but my peppers need occasional irrigation in order to produce their best crop. In your soil, you may find okra and peppers have the same watering needs, but in my soil they don't. Hope that helps.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Dripworks

Unfortunately, my zoning won't help you, because of my water source. My irrigation water is the exhaust water from my geo thermal heating and cooling system. The well pumps 18 gallons/minute, processes through the heat exchanger, then spits it out into the irrigation hose. I must therefore always have zones that allow 1080 gallons an hour to drip. With the particular Dripworks product I use, that means I have to always have 1500 feet of my particular version of dripline open and flowing per zone. I can have a little variance but if the the water backs up the cooling will shut down. When I add valves to the tomato area, I'll have to have an equal amount of line open elsewhere to allow the flow. If you are on city water, or on a traditional well water on demand, this constraint will not apply to you.

The Dripworks catalog is very educational. In addition, their phone reps are very helpful in helping you determine which products suit your needs. Dawn is right about choosing the right configuration for your soil. Helpful hints in the catalog will help you do just that.

Sorry I can't be of more help way that would be more beneficial to you.

Good luck!

Seedmama

Beasley

will you be taking your system up each year? Will you be doing crop rotations?

Because of the need to keep amending my soil and the desire to try different crops, I tear every thing down each year and rebuild the next. If I were using a drip system (and maybe I should) it would sure be a lot of work.
Another thing, my water needs change very often.

Just food for thought, Larry

I've done my share of irrigation. Not sure why. LOL. I firmly believe in drip irrigation and in heavy mulch. With the two I've cut my watering down over 50%. I have sandy loam soil. Personal experience in my garden I put shut off valves on each row. I used a timer for a 3-4 weeks one year. Then discontinued. The only time I've used it since is when I was away. To make it easier for those watering for me. I feel you either under water or over water. With our weather it is hard to know how much and how often to water. Even when it is 100 degrees. It matters if it is still or the wind is blowing. Maybe I'm too set in my ways. But tried to give it a fair trial. As it would of been easier on me. So what I do is check every row night and morning. And then turn on and off rows as needed. I have manually set the timer to water for say 1 hour if I was leaving in the past. The past two years I haven't even used it. I'm going to try a new type drip hose this year. I will add a link to it later. In my experience I've never found two crops I felt needed water at the same time on a regular basis. Here depending on weather and crops I water anywhere from every 3rd day to once a week. During extreme hot and windy weather I water some crops every 2nd day. This don't happen very often. And last year tomatoes were the only crop that got watered that often. If you have a mainline and shut off valves on each row and plan your crops correctly it is really easy. Jay