micro irrigation

 

  I'm thinking about micro irrigation (drip irrigation) for my micro
garden. I've noticed that leaving the garden alone for a few days during
the dog days of summer is not beneficial.

   Any pointers om either equipment or technique?

   Jeff

 


It is good to get one of the little Raindrip brochures at your local home
improvement stores--it outlines the types of hoses, connections, and outlets
they offer, and helps you figure out what you need.  If your local place
doesn't sell Raindrip, see if they have informational brochures on a
different brand.

I got started by buying a basic Raindrip kit.  (I would assume other brands
have similar kits.)  It comes with a sampling of their products, and it's a
good way to get acquainted with them.  After you set up a line or two,
you'll start to intuitively figure out what you need and can then go to the
home improvement store and get specific supplies.  (NOTE: in places like
Lowe's and Home Depot, this stuff is in the Plumbing section rather than the
Garden section.)

I use 6' hoses and splitters to maintain lots of different lines all over my
yard.  (You can't have too many splitters, as far as I'm concerned!)  This
enables me to open just a few streams at any given time, so I can rotate my
watering.

The only caution I have is that you need to check on the drippers and
connections regularly, to make sure the drips are not clogged and that the
lines stay intact.  There have been many times my pipes have popped off of
their main lines and deposited gallons of water all over the yard.  (Keeping
a rather low flow helps to ease this.)  The drippers have worked pretty well
for two years, but every now and then one will get clogged and will need to
be replaced.  It's best to notice this before the plant is affected.

If you ever want to talk about various configurations, let me know and I
will be more than happy to share some of my garden plans.  I largely operate
out of rows of 3X6 foot raised wooden beds, but I've got all sorts of other
configurations too.  Despite the occasional clogged dripper or popped-out
pipe, I find drip irrigation to be immensely beneficial, and I highly
recommend it.
--S.

 

Suzanne D. wrote:

OK, the kits look pretty cheap, as cheap as anything these days!

   I like this idea, instead of one serpentine line, that way you can
reposition the drippers easily as  the garden changes. Are there valves
or adjustments to control the rate, or is it all done by time and fixed
rates? It looks like some timers have multiple controls.

   I have a small enough garden to check all the plants.

Thanks. Let me get started and I'll take up your offer of advice later.
I'm a bit too ignorant at the moment!

   Jeff

 




I got mine for about $20.  It's cheaper to buy the components individually,
but the kit gives you a "Dummies" version!  Your description of your garden
elsewhere would probably use a small kit like this perfectly.


One thing to note is that, while it is possible to remove drippers and plug
them up (they sell plugs for this very reason), it is rather difficult.  the
drippers off can be time consuming, so I generally buy new supplies instead
of trying to re-use old ones.  But it is definitely possible to re-use the
old ones if you have the patience for it.  One good thing to do is to lay
out one main line, and put a single 1/4" hole near each bed or plot, from
which you run a 1/4" tube that you can alter from season to season as
necessary.  Since I rotate the types of vegetables in my beds, I sometimes
need closely-spaced drippers, and other times I need more widely-spaced
drips, or sprayers, or soakers, etc.  Putting a single hole on the main line
for each bed gives you the versatility to change things up according to your
needs.  It's pretty easy to change out the 1/4" tubes every season.


There are flow controls and whatnot, but I don't use them.  I use only the
barest of technology, and just open my splitters enough to get the flow that
I want.  I use splitters ABOVE other splitters so that I can adjust the flow
rate initially, then not have to adjust it again, but simply open the
necessary splitter valve!  (Didn't I say I love splitters?)  It isn't
uncommon for my water to go through three or four splitters before it gets
to its final destination.  So much easier to open and close a couple of
valves every day than to open each one individually and re-adjust the flow
rate every time.  Anyway (after this long-winded rant that has little to do
with anything you asked!), you can look into the timers and flow checks and
all that stuff, but I can't give any practical advice on these because I
simply don't utilize them.
--S.

 



    If you want to stay low-tech and low-cost, try one or two of those
soaking hoses made from recycled tires and see whether they're suitable.
A flow-restricting washer ensures that water just oozes from the hose
along its length, with no spray or puddling. I've found that two
25-footers, with an average flow rate of .75 US gal/min (each), work
well in each of my 3'x8' raised beds. I charge mine through a simple
hose-end valve manifold; the hose has a (inexpensive) 25psi inline
regulator to provide a fairly constant flow rate: I'm on a private
residential water well so system pressure is variable.
    If there is a hassle, it is moving the supply hose from bed to bed
but I am able to rotate watering easily and to monitor volume simply by
timing.
--
Running on single malt in U.S.A.
Peninsular Florida,
USDA zone 9b