water Drip Irrigation

bpiela

bpiela

I am trying to figure out a simple design for drip irrigation for my small garden where I like to pack in the plants kinda close to each other.
 
Assuming my plot is 24' x 12', I am thinking of an approximate design similar to this:
 
JC1mwlK.jpg

 
The dotted lines signify rows that I walk up and down on.  Nothing is planted there.  The small circles are the pepper plants, spaced approximately 1 foot apart  The dark blue line at the bottom is my 1/2" tube that will have 6 tee connectors and one L connector.   This is what I am calling a "comb" pattern, with branches off of the main line.  Each branch is (I guess) 1/2" drip line and then they branch off to the plants with 1/4" tube with an emitter that will apply water directly to the plant. 
 
One thing that I am not understanding completely is if this design is even possible.  Will water run to everyplant?  I was under the impression that each tee connector will reduce the water pressure by half.  So, for example, if the pressure was say 20psi coming in to the system, the water running down the first row and also onto the second row would be 10psi, the water running down the second row and onto the third row would be 5 psi, etc.  Do I need some kind of pressure regulator for each row?
 
As an added complexity, I am hoping to run IRT mulch down each row of plants, so the 1/2" tube running down each row will be covered by the IRT mulch.  There will be holes in the IRT mulch for each plant and its associated emitter.
 
Am I over complicating things or trying to do too much?
 
Thanks in advance for any recommendations or advice.
 
 
 
yes this is a similar design to what i did last year. it works fine.
 
you just need the pressure regulator at the very beginning to make sure you aren't too high. i think its 30psi.
 
The pressure does not work like that, it will stabilize across the system after a minute or two and should be relatively equal. You will not be dripping enough water to cause a significant pressure drop.
 
 
Also i know its tempting to cram as many plants into a small area as you have as possible... but it get's pretty hard to take care of in september. I could not really walk between my rows. i had to walk through it with a hedge trimmer, lol. so good luck.
 
sabzVAce.jpeg
 
juanitos said:
yes this is a similar design to what i did last year. it works fine.
 
you just need the pressure regulator at the very beginning to make sure you aren't too high. i think its 30psi.
 
The pressure does not work like that, it will stabilize across the system after a minute or two and should be relatively equal. You will not be dripping enough water to cause a significant pressure drop.
 
 
Also i know its tempting to cram as many plants into a small area as you have as possible... but it get's pretty hard to take care of in september. I could not really walk between my rows. i had to walk through it with a hedge trimmer, lol. so good luck.
 
sabzVAce.jpeg
Click to expand...
 
I gotta believe you get results like this because of your constant dosing. I don't know.
 
 
You want the design so that the entire system is flooded with water
There will only be a difference in watering levels if the system is not flooded
 
Remember that it's dripping slowly- it's not a sprinkler system
 
However if you're in a situation where it's not getting flooded then the answer is not to limit the pressure on the output it's to increase the input 
 
mas_fuego said:
 
I gotta believe you get results like this because of your constant dosing. I don't know.
 
Click to expand...
 
As someone who once lived very close to Juanitos' part of the world, I will tell you right now, it is not dosing, it's the amazing fertility of the soil.  I'm guessing that he has the typical OK red clay soil. (yes/no?)
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But either way...  I once enjoyed gardens that never saw a single dose of fertilizer, other than whatever I tilled into the garden at the end of the previous season.  Down here in Dixie Land, people don't know what good soil is.  If you could grow with the ease that the midwest enjoys, you'd have a completely different frame of reference for some of the questions that get posted. Us Florida folks have to almost be plant scientists to grow, where guys like Juanitos can practically throw his plants on the ground, and turn the sprinkler on once a day, and watch it grow into a beanstalk.  LOL
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Damn, I miss my gardens back home.  The last time I grew a garden in soil, I was living on the east side of Wichita, KS.  I remember that I put 18 tomato plants, and 22 jalapeno plants in the ground - no fertilizer, except a little scrap of bait fish in each hole.  I watered 2X per day when it wasn't raining, and when my crops came in, I  was bringing tomatoes and peppers in by the bucket load.
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Seeing that garden made me homesick. :(
 
tctenten said:
Checkout dripdepot.com. I ordered my stuff from them and I was very happy with the service. They have alot of information on there about how many rows and emitters you can support.
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Thank you so much!  Looks like a great site.  Can't wait to dive into it.
 
juanitos said:
yes this is a similar design to what i did last year. it works fine.
 
you just need the pressure regulator at the very beginning to make sure you aren't too high. i think its 30psi.
 
The pressure does not work like that, it will stabilize across the system after a minute or two and should be relatively equal. You will not be dripping enough water to cause a significant pressure drop.
 
 
Also i know its tempting to cram as many plants into a small area as you have as possible... but it get's pretty hard to take care of in september. I could not really walk between my rows. i had to walk through it with a hedge trimmer, lol. so good luck.
Click to expand...
 
That is an awesome photo!  I laughed but it is with extreme respect for your gardening talents.  In all honesty, if it ever gets that "good", then the following year I will start giving the plants more space.  Until then, that pic will be my goal.
 
Powelly said:
You want the design so that the entire system is flooded with water
There will only be a difference in watering levels if the system is not flooded
 
Remember that it's dripping slowly- it's not a sprinkler system
 
However if you're in a situation where it's not getting flooded then the answer is not to limit the pressure on the output it's to increase the input 
Click to expand...
 
Thanks so much for this info!
 
One problem I have is that the garden is 100' from the house.  I do not have any plans of running a permanent hose or any underground pvc to the garden.  I will probably be manually running the hose from the faucet to the garden to water for an hour or two, most likely when I come home from work.  I am thinking that maybe I would have something similar to this mounted at the garden (not this particular item since it didn't get a lot of likes):
 
https://www.amazon.com/Yard-Butler-HBE-6-Faucet-Extender/dp/B000RYL2CY/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1489853050&sr=8-9&keywords=outdoor+faucet+extension
 
I would then run the pressure regulator, the filter and whatever other cool stuff off of it.  I  would come home from work, run the hose out to that thinger and let it rock for an hour or two and then roll the hose back up.  Not the best plan, but I am not sure how much longer I will be living at this location so I don't want to do anything permanent under ground.
 
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juanitos said:
I could not really walk between my rows. i had to walk through it with a hedge trimmer, lol. so good luck
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Jon, you should post that video of you crawling through the rows of plants from last season. It was hilarious. It looked like you were in the jungle in 'Nam, hahaha
 
juanitos said:
here's a relevant image, you can see the 1/2 in mainline and 1/4 tee with 1/4 line to a 1gph dripper. seems like the same you want to do.
 
WWryAmla.jpeg
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I saw your last video. How could you possibly reuse those? They seemed completely overtaken with roots. You would have to completely refill them, right?
 
mas_fuego said:
I saw your last video. How could you possibly reuse those? They seemed completely overtaken with roots. You would have to completely refill them, right?
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I can't speak for his system, but I reuse planted buckets all the time, with the old root systems intact.  I just cut the old plant off at the soil line, and replant next to it.  The old roots decaying just feed the plant, as well as creating structure in the media.  Add some worms to feed on rotting roots, and you get another little bonus.
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There is nothing wrong with re-using containers that contain root mass.  The earth is a massive web of root systems, both living and dead.  Our containers are just a microcosm of that environment.
 
juanitos said:
here's a relevant image, you can see the 1/2 in mainline and 1/4 tee with 1/4 line to a 1gph dripper. seems like the same you want to do.
 
WWryAmla.jpeg
Click to expand...
Thanks for this picture.  Much appreciated.
 
No, each T will not divide the pressure by 1/2.  With zero flow, the entire tree will be evenly pressurized.
Now consider a case where your emitters flow very slowly - a few drops per minute.  Even a narrow feed-hose network will have no problem providing enough FLOW to all the emitters.
You'll get pressure drop only when the system is 'bleeding' more water than the piping can provide, as with large or numerous emitters.  
 
After playing with http://irrigation.wsu.edu/Content/Calculators/General/Pipeline-Pressure-Loss.php
... I think both your 1/2 main feeder, and the 1/4 inch vertical hoses are significantly undersized, assuming 1 gallon-per-hour drippers.
I'd go 3/4" for Big Blue, and 1/2" for the 7 branches.   Run these 1/2 inch lines along one row, plugging emitters directly into it.  Add 1 ft. 1/4 inch feeders for each plant in the next row.
 
Something like this.
 
 
o|---o
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o|---o
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o|---o
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  =======///======= < H2O
 
 
IMO, you should probably get a pressure regulator.  The tubing isn't all that robust, and on a hot day it gets even softer.  Some municipal water supplies run to 70+ PSI, which may well cause blowouts.  That and a good filter, to keep the emitters from getting clogged with the silt, sand, rust dust, and other junk that comes with city water.
 
Geonerd said:
IMO, you should probably get a pressure regulator.  The tubing isn't all that robust, and on a hot day it gets even softer.  Some municipal water supplies run to 70+ PSI, which may well cause blowouts.  That and a good filter, to keep the emitters from getting clogged with the silt, sand, rust dust, and other junk that comes with city water.
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And looking at how large you are running this is really a small cost.
 
A mature chile plant, just pick a serrano here, has a plant canopy of 5-10 square feet. Crowding plants may reduce chile production.
 
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