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water Here's some irrigation tips

B

Bigoledude

During most of my 30 years in the employ of the local oil refinery, I also owned an irrigation company. Been out of the irrigation business a few years now.

Anyway, I recently put some plants in Walmart "Wally "green bags".

In order to get the irrigation water to stay inside the porous bag, I tapered the soil. Shaped it sorta like a funnel. The high side is along the outer edge closest to the bag and, of course, it tapers downward with the lowest point of the funnel around the stem.

I ran "1/2 inch mainline poly tubing" along the ground right along-side the row of pots and bags. I tapped into that 1/2-inch mainline with "1/4 inch transfer barbs" and ran "1/4-inch spaghetti tubing" into each pot/bag. I inserted "1/2 gallon-per-hour pressure-compensating emitters" into the spaghetti tubing and staked them down with a U-shaped piece of wire made out of a coat hanger or whatever I had. They sell emitters with a stake made onto them already.

There's really no need to buy an "end fitting". Just kink the end and put a zip-tie or wrap a wire around the kink. Easy to drain for freeze precaution. Just slide the tie off and re-install when you're ready to crank the system up again.

Emitter with stake http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_DCOB

1/2-inch mainline tubing http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_MAIN12

Pressure regulator http://www.irrigationdirect.com/dd-hpr25-hq

Fitting to connect to hose bib. It just shoves right on. No glue needed. http://www.dripworks.com/product/CHS

Each irrigation company tries to carry a mainline tubing of a specific size, different from the competition. Make sure you buy your mainline fittings from the same company you buy your tubing from. The 1/4-inch spaghetti tubing and fittings are all the same.

1/4-inch spaghetti tubing
http://www.dripworks.com/product/Q_14

1/4-inch transfer barbs http://www.irrigationdirect.com/irrigation-products-and-supplies/drip-irrigation/barbed-fittings/dd-c250

I didn't want to buy a regulator so that's why I used pressure-compensating emitters.

Drip emitters http://www.irrigationdirect.com/irrigation-products-and-supplies/drip-irrigation/drip-emitters

The 1/2 gallon GPH emitters should trickle slow enough to soak into the soil surface, even if it is crusted-over a little. A little scratching of the soil-surface solves the crusting problem.

1/4-inch poly spaghetti tubing is a lot stiffer than vinyl. If you choose vinyl for it's better flexibility during cold conditions, use a regulator. The softer vinyl tends to blow off under higher pressures. Especially in warmer weather.

This certainly isn't rocket science. But, if any of y'all need some advice for any irrigation issues, just PM me and, I'll gladly give you my email address. I don't sell anything. Period! And, the info is free.

If you think your question might benefit others, post it here, and I'll eventually get back here.
 
No. I ran several systems that used the brass version of this;

http://www.dripworks.com/category/mazzei-suction-style-fertilizer-injectors

The majority of the systems we installed were for lawns, gardens, athletic fields and commercial properties. The few injectors were for some large nurseries that grew vegetable starts and annual ornamental starts.

I stopped in at two of the nurseries a while back and, they're still using those old brass injectors with soluble fertilizers!

If you think I may be able to help with your issues, ask away.
 
Good to know Ray... I'll be setting up a drip irrigation system in my back yard this spring now that I repaired a leaky outdoor faucet. The next step is to get a good hose timer. Do you have any recommendations for those?

BTW, if you click the "follow this topic" button at the top of this page you'll get an Email prompt when somebody posts here.
 
Good info. About two weeks late for me since my order of tubing and fittings just arrived last week. My research concluded almost the same list of parts that you have in the OP, but I did get a pressure regulator as well because my house pressure is higher than the black poly is rated for.

Still have to buy a timer, like Stickman, are there any inexpensive good ones?

At 1/2gal/hour, the big plants probably don't need much more than 1 hour a day I would think, but I may be way off.
 
Hey big Rick, thanks for the reminder for the "Follow This Topic" thingy. Whenever I do this, I disable the email function. I left this one on now.

The battery operated timers at Walmart and Home Depot are good bargains for the money. If you require more than one watering a day, you MUST choose one with that capability. Whenever you change the batteries in your smoke detectors, change the ones in your timers. The change of Daylight-Savings-Time is when the Gubmint recommends we do this as an easy to remember date.

Also, if you have a long way to run your tubing, or, if you don't have enough volume/pressure at the spigot to handle your watering needs with 1/2-inch mainline, you may have to run 3/4-inch mainline tubing.

When you get around to installing your equipment, let me know. I'll help in any way I can.



Hey Jeff

Large plants, hot days, porosity of the soil etc.. kinda dictate what your requirements might be. I like to use 2 emitters on each grown plant, just to assure that my entire root zone gets watered.

And, I believe that two 1/2 GPH emitters, one on each side, would be plenty enough for the majority of plants/soil out there. If you have some plants that begin to wilt before most of the others, add an emitter.

Over at Shane's (stc3248) glog, I just commented on how I'd like to try the "1/4-inch Soaker Dripline" emitter tubing. It looks just like the 1/4-inch spaghetti tubing but has an emitter every 6, 9 or 12 inches built right into the tubing already. Just make a ring of this around each plant, vi-olla!

http://www.dripworks.com/category/one-fourth-inch-soaker-dripline

http://www.dripworks.com/product/14T-10

It would take; transfer barb, 1/4-inch spaghetti tubing, 1/4-inch barbed TEE and a ring of the 1/4" Soaker Dripline.

Any more questions, just shoot.

If, when your seedlings are still very small, you may be choose to run only 1 emitter at each plant. There is a small 1/4-inch valve you can install in your spaghetti tubing to slow-down or to completely shut-off an emitter altogether.

http://www.dripworks.com/product/14VFV-5

Guys, I link y'all to DripWorks mostly because it is very easy for me to navigate their website. I have no affiliation with this outfit and will be more than happy to go to any website/company you choose and make a list for you.
 
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