I think 1" to 2" per week sounds good. lets take 2". So you gave to figure it out how much time with a given flow rate you will get that. Lets say that a bed is 4ft by 8ft. That is 32 sqr ft. ONE inch water will add up to 5.3 cu.ft. That is roughly 40 gallons of water. Now we have to know the flow rate (GPM = gal per min). Roughly, a fully open garden hose will have over 3 gpm. But lets say that your drip line(just the part coming to that bed) has a ONE gpm flow rate . Then you will need 40 minutes. But right now I will cut it in half and if rains, just shut it off completely. ......................................... HOW to measure flow rate: Jut put the hose in a 5 gall bucket and time how long it takes to fill it: flow rat = 5/time (in minutes)

I have a garden with about 10 raised beds totaling ~1000 SF including walkways. It is in the country and I only get there every couple of weeks so I needed an automatic irrigation system. I purchased a six zone irrigation controller and located all the zone valves in an above ground valve box next to my irrigation well. I ran 3/4" PVC lines underground and installed a hydrant valve at each bed. Several beds were served from a single zone because I needed a couple of the zones to irrigate some fruit trees. At each bed I used 1/4" dripline which has drippers spaced at 12". The driplines are long enough to run back-and-forth the length of the bed three times so that I get pretty even watering. Any bed that is not being used can be shutoff at its valve and the other beds on that zone continue to operate. I also have one dripline that I run across a number of individual pots. I originally tried running separate hoses with drippers on the ends of the hoses to serve each pot. However I found that using a single dripline is much more flexible since I am continually adding or removing pots. I originally used soaker hose but found that the hoses only last about a year before they become hardened from exposure to the sun and the water emitted becomes very irregular. They also break easily after they harden. I also found that it is very important to filter the water to keep the driplines from plugging. I started using one of the small dripline strainer/filters which has a small mesh metal strainer to remove particles. However I still had plugging from the small sand particles that got through the strainer. I ended up installing a household type water filter with a replaceable paper filter. It is installed between the well and the zone valves and has worked great. I need to dump the collected sand every couple of months. The system has worked great and I have been able to have a garden under less than ideal conditions considering how little attention I am able to give it. Your needs are probably less but the same concepts should apply.

ng, Spacing is not as important as time. You can run ay system long enough to get the proper water needs to the plant. The difficulty starts when you have different plants with different water need amounts on the same zone. You have the right idea about being able to shut off sections to cultivate the plot while growing other plots. Different vegetables have different life cycles. Soaker hoses are difficult because you can't control the amount of water coming from the hose (they also clog over time) as with drip tape or emitters. On the same zone you can have plants with larger drip rates and those with slower drip rates but it is trial and error to set up. It is better to have separate plant zones with similar watering needs together and just work out the time by trial and error method. You do have to initially check the water in the soil to see if plants are getting what they need. Your idea about getting water to the beds is a good one and the way I would do it. Make sure you pour some concrete at all the bends so they can't move (thrust blocks). JMHO Aloha

Your current sprinkler system may or may not have an inline filter and pressure regulator. If not, you should be sure to install these as part of your conversion to drip. A 150 mesh filter and a 15 to 25 psi pressure regulator are recommended for drip systems. You can buy each component individually or as a filter/pressure regulator combination unit. Your conversion kit should include these components