Drip irrigation over quite a large area...

[Dalrimple]

SP yes most have a bowl containing a mesh gauze that can be removed and washed out in water to clean them . atb Dal

[Snoop Puss]

Dal, are you able to recommend a site that offers a way of designing your own drip irrigation system? Fortunately, we'll be using a hose to start with. But I've watched so many youtube videos and read contradictory advice about line lengths and pipe diameters that I'm getting proper confused.

[Dalrimple]

S P sorry I don't fit irigation sytems they are water pipes that serve industrial procesing units .
atb Dal

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, Dal.

[boatsman]

The usual pipes laid on the ground for drip irrigation are 16mm diameter (in the US they refer to the pipes as 17mm). Anyway here they are very common and are sold in reels of 25 m or 50m. The pipes are without drippers for feed and connection pipes and the dripper pipes have the drippers spaced at 30cm or 50cm. Angle and T joints are available as are all fittings to connect the piping (before the pressure reducer and filter) to standard 1/2" or 3/4" BSP water pipes. The usual way is to lay out the piping on the ground first of all and then place each plant alongside a dripper. Generally i've had the plants in the ground so I bring the pipes as close as possible to the plants. I the case of a tree I use a T joint in the pipe and make a loop with the irrigation pipe around the base of the tree and then connect the two T joints with a short length of blank piping

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, Boatsman. I'm thinking of opting for a combination of drippers for some plants (relatively widely spaced such as cabbages) and soaker hose for more closely spaced plants such as carrots and onions. Have you ever used soaker hose?

[boatsman]

I don 't know what a soaker hose is so I looked it up in Wiki where I was redirected to drip irrigation. Here in Israel you can buy all sizes of drip irrigation lines (the system was invented here) and you can vary the spacing between drippers. As I mentioned before, the usual spacing between drippers is either 30 cm or 50 cm. However, if you use blank tubing you can insert drippers wherever you wish. You have to drill a 6.5mm hole in the blank tubing and then press the insert dripper in the hole. Just take care you don't drill right through the pipe. If you do so by mistake then you just press in a dripper.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, boatsman. Soaker hose is quite popular here (essentially a tube, made of either recycled tyres or fabric, that weeps water all along its length). I'll probably go for drippers for some veg and soaker hose for things like carrots and onions that grow quite close together.

One thing I'm having difficulty getting my head round is combining the pressure produced by the pump, the actual flow of water per hour and the lengths of pipe/hose that I can run. Mr Snoop's view is just set it up and see how it goes.

[boatsman]

Any drip irrigation line that is connected to the water mains has to have a pressure reducer in line so the pressure does not exceed 1.7 atmospheres. If you place such a pressure reducer in the line from your water supply it should give you a constant water pressure so all the drippers would supply the necessary amount of water.

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, boatsman. We'll be using a pump, not water mains pressure, hence the difficulty. I can't find a pressure curve for it online (not sure if that's what you call it - a graph that I'm guessing shows pressure relative to height of lift). Anyway, it'll be interesting!

[Snoop Puss]

OK, so first feedback for Nicos and anyone else interested. The pump works well. The flow is 9 litres a minute, so it pays to have beds that you can flood if you're going to use a hosepipe, as I'm currently doing. Should be fine for a drip system divided into different sectors, though.

It's what I expected and I am very pleased with it. I just plonk the hose in a bed and get on with some weeding while it does all the work.

[Nicos]

Really pleased you are happy with it!

[Snoop Puss]

Yes, the flow is gentle on the soil and plants, but it is slow. However, having had years of filling watering cans from barrels and then carrying them up and down the beds, it is a big improvement. I can now tend the plot rather than just water.

[Niall]

Thanks for this thread, the weather this year has been pretty wet! But during dry spells it is backbreaking to do constant watering in the garden, I am definitely going to invest in a drip irrigation system!!

[Snoop Puss]

Out of interest, Niall, what is your water source?