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water Drip Irrigation Question

Doing some serious thinking about using a drip system next year.  I have done a little research online but was wondering what everyone's thoughts on the subject are.  
 
Thinking about buying a kit for the back garden.  Would it be better to buy the parts and put together my own?  I would think a kit would be easier and probably a little cheaper.
 
How well do thy work?
 
Do you use a timer?  I probably won't since I have to water too many other things as well.
 
Are there better brands than others out there?
 
What are some of the do's and most importantly, don'ts.
 
Thanks.
 
HBJ
 
I just bought a hose which is closed on the end but has pin holes all over it. Kind of like a drip hose but not quiet. Unless you mean a hydroponic drip system.

If not then there's no need for all the fancy stakes. I just layed my hose out where I neededit and also ran some above the plants to create a misting rain effect from above. Works a treat for under ten bux.
 
Timer bought from Lowes and all the parts bought from irrigationdirect.com 
 
Pics are in my glog from last year. 50 plants last year and 80ish for this coming year. 
 
I used 1/2 gal/hr pressure compensated emitters and ran for 15 minutes a day. that worked well for all but the hottest days where I had to supplement a bit. 
 
 
Well worth it. No more having to check the plants after work every day. Most of mine were in pots though, YMMV 
 
all my 50 plants will be in a straight line so i'm going to do a drip 1 hour every 2 or 3 days.
timer on amazon is like 30$, drip hose is like 10$. 
i'll use the bamboo stakes that are already by the plants to help line it out.
 
I too use a drip system for my roses when it is over 100 deg F. I have it hooked to a hose bib, and with 2 head that are 1.5 gallons per hour. It works great and keeps if from dying in the 110+ summer days. I leave it on 24x7 with the high heat. I remove it once the heat wave is gone. We also get high winds that dry my plants out.

I did buy a new internet connected controller to setup a permanent drip system.

http://www.roslen.com

I was in on the initial Kickstarter fundraising they did. Can't wait to get it setup. I love drip systems. My dad got me hooked on those as a kid. He even used bubblers. It puts the water where you want it, and not to fast.
 
thepodpiper said:
Put drip irrigation in my garden and will never go without it. Every single plant has it's own emitter and i use a controller as well. I bought all of mine separate and just built my own manifolds.
 
That is a nice looking setup. Bummer the telephone pole easement goes thru there.
 
To T..P.P.:

I've been examining your drip system for several days now. Nice setup! I'm going drip in my 16' x 34' garden this year. Tired of messing with sprinklers and wet leaves on my tomato plants (disease). Peppers are grown in a entirely separate garden. A couple of questions if I may:

What size pipe did you you use for your manifold and distribution lines? I'm thinking 3/4" for mine. Could go 1" if there is merit to it.
On the riser, looks to be a couple of debris filters? What is the joystick looking device (with the blue cap)?
Did you use a PRV? If so, what pressure did you reduce to? I'm on a well, so will be experiencing pressure spikes when it turns on.
Water connection to source, hose or permanent? I'll be using a hose to start, with about a 100' run. May bury some pipe in the future.
You chose to go with individual emitters at each plant location. What GPH did you use? I'm thinking about a dripline. Any pro or cons you may have experienced using one vs. the other?
Do you leave the entire system installed thru out the winter? If not, do you disassemble everything? Obviously flush the system.
You have a rather large distribution system. Is your source pressure adequate for supplying water to all your areas? If not, do you zone?

Thanks so much in advance for any information you provide on this topic. Regards.
 
thepodpiper said:
Put drip irrigation in my garden and will never go without it. Every single plant has it's own emitter and i use a controller as well. I bought all of mine separate and just built my own manifolds.
 
I too am looking into getting a drip irrigation system, I have been on several websites and looked at a lot of youtube videos.  I am torn between buying kit or building my own. All my plants will be in rows so i think a kit would work great.  My problem is when watching the videos I dont see anything that tells how long to water, how frequent to water. Is this just a trial and error thing? Also on the videos it shows each plant having a drip to them but then for like pumpkins, watermelons it shows a wrap around because they say the plant will get real big and need a bunch of water.  I assume they mean vine plants? Safe assumption?
Also excuse my ignorance but,
What is the adapter you are using to connect the pvc to the drip hose? 
What type of drip hose do you use?
What size do you use?
What is the spacing on the drip hose?
You in Detroit so do you pack away for the winter?
Looks like you have a few zones, do you have each on its separate timer? Or do you turn valves manually?
 
mipepperguy, 
 
What size pipe did you you use for your manifold and distribution lines?  …….The manifolds are made from 3/4" pvc and all outletshave a ball valve shutoff.
 
What is the joystick looking device (with the blue cap)? …...It is the controller,the one I have is programmable but usually i just do it manually by pushing a button.
I do have a PRV, it is on the right side of the riser but i just have it maxxed out and control pressure with a ball valve located at the main source connection. I guess a better prv than the one i bought would work but the 3/4" pvc ball valves are cheap. 
 
what pressure did you reduce to?…….. The pressure is going to depend on how many of the lines you are going to have open at one time but there is a minimum pressure that is needed if you are going to use pressure regulated emitters.
 
 
My water connection is a garden hose because my garden is a ways from the house.
 
I use 1 gal per hour emitters but everything except watermelons, pumpkins and cantaloupe get watered  1/2 hr. at a time (and not very often) because my whole garden is covered in black plastic so the need to water is minimal.
 
Using a dripline to me would be defeating the purpose, you only need to water the plant directly not the spaces between them.
Opinions will differ on that one. Saves a lot of water using drippers. 
 
I disassemble everything due to roto tilling and It is put together differently every year due to crop rotation.
 
You have a rather large distribution system. Is your source pressure adequate for supplying water to all your areas? If not, do you zone?……..My water pressure will supply the whole garden at once but never has it been done. 
Peppers very rarely get watered all summer.
Tomatoes get water every 7-10 days
Watermelons, Pumpkins  get 3 gallons of water per vine every single day rain or shine up until 2 weeks prior to harvest.
 
 
beerbreath81, it is very easy to do, i would just order what you need and  do it yourself. You are going to want to tweak it to your own needs anyway. 
 
Watering would be done only when your plants tell you to water,  if they are green lush and look healthy chances are they don't need any water. If you use emitters the water is going directly to each plant and not spreading out but going down and thats exactly where you want the roots to go.
 
 
Also on the videos it shows each plant having a drip to them but then for like pumpkins, watermelons it shows a wrap around because they say the plant will get real big and need a bunch of water.  I assume they mean vine plants? Safe assumption?…..Not all vines need water like watermelons and pumpkins do.
 
What is the adapter you are using to connect the pvc to the drip hose?……They are pvc to drip tubing connections which I think can be bought at loses. almost all of this stuff can be purchased at loses now.
 
What type of drip hose do you use?………. 1/2" drip tubing. I bought mine online but can be bought locally now. shipping charges  for the tubing was astronomical.
 
 
What is the spacing on the drip hose?……I don't use drip hose but if you are referring to the individual lines in manifold or the emitters themselves it is whatever you want them to be for your personal setup. On mine the spacing for toms and peppers is 4' between rows and the eitters for toms is every 4' and peppers is2' if I do not want to get around very easy and 3' if i want some type of order. 2' just does not get it between pepper plants. (it gets to be a jungle that can not be walked through).
 
The big black thing on the left of the riser is a pellet fertilizer thingamajig but can not find the pellets so its useless so I installed a mirical grow fertilizer bottle inline where the union is on the riser.

 
This is what 3gallons of water a day does for watermelons. Had 2 over 50 pounds.

 
 
 
TY TPP for responding. Your information was very helpful. Like the idea of the M.G. fert. bottle inline, simple, cheap and I already have one.

Your logic on drip line vs. emitters make sense. Also controlling the flow pressure with a ball valve makes sense, can always change latter if need be. My manifold will be one straight line, ytd how many tees but each one will be valved.

My soil is sandy loam, nice to work but drains quite quickly. I wondering if a 1 GPH emitter is enough, maybe a 2.

How big of an area (diameter) will a 1 GPH wet?
Was thinking about two lines on each side of the tomatoes (they get really large) because of the relatively rapid percolation through the soil. Would rather go bigger and throttle back than be undersized.

TY again for your assistance. Regards.
 
This is what 3gallons of water a day does for watermelons. Had 2 over 50 pounds.

 
WOW!! NICE MELONS
 
I will take your advice and begin layout of new garden and see what it would take to buy and build. Im sure the kind folks on THP will be on stand by if I have any questions.
 
I'm going to be doing drip for the first time this year also.
 
Here's some information I found useful. There are other tutorials on drip irrigation as well.
 
http://www.irrigationdirect.com/expert-advice/drip-irrigation-tutorials/general-overview
http://www.irrigationdirect.com/expert-advice/drip-irrigation-tutorials/drip-summary
 
I ordered my supplies from them too...I would recommend IrrigationDirect. Free shipping over $49.
 
Vegetables need 1" of water per week (not sure how that's measured), but that translates to 65 gallons per 100 sq. ft. per week. It's better to water deep and less frequently than giving a shallow watering every day.
 
If you have a row of evenly spaced plants, I don't see why you wouldn't use a dripline...it would save you the hassle of having to punch and install all those emitters. The driplines comes in various spacings and emission rates so you can pick what suits you.
 
I was confusing drip lines with soaker hoses my bad. You could incorporate both in your system. I like the emitters because my garden layout changes every year.
 
I used a drip system for the first time last year.  I had 15 5g buckets to water.  I bought a timer for it, but ended up never using it since I just left it hooked up to my outside spigot/faucet and turned the knob when I needed to water the buckets.  It was the best investment I ever made.  Now before and/or after work, all I do is turn the knob for about 3 minutes or so and then turn it off - 15 plants watered and I'm done.  I'm going to do it again this year, too.  I bought almost all my stuff online at dripdepot.com. I just bought what I needed instead of a kit.
 
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