Watering Grid - What's your opinion?

Hi everyone!
Had a question about a company I saw on Facebook- Garden In Minutes  they make a garden watering grid. (I copied their picture). Has anyone used it before? I was thinking about them for my beds but want some opinions before I do. Thanks!  




BTW favorite veggies to grow are beefsteak tomatoes, leaf lettuce, onions, and cucumber. Can't go wrong with a "salad garden".

You may want to consider making your own.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9942-my-sfg-progress-pictures-9-4x4-with-fully-automated-watering

I made one like it and it works perfectly.

bnoles wrote:You may want to consider making your own.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9942-my-sfg-progress-pictures-9-4x4-with-fully-automated-watering

I made one like it and it works perfectly.

Ev'nin' Bob!

I'm curious (or so I've been told by lots of folks) as to why you ran pipes along the sides and why you have them crisscrossed.  From your picture you have 5 pipes in each direction.  Seems to me that puts water in places it's not needed (but what do I know, right?). 

Why not have just have pipes that go through the center of your squares (4 of them) and none going crosswise?  Seems to me that this would put water at the center of each square foot where it would disperse 6" in each direction.  What am I missing?

RH, This is what I made from 1/4" drip lines from DripWorks.  Two lines across each square, each line with 6" spaced emitters. Is this what you were thinking?

sanderson wrote:RH,  This is what I made from 1/4" drip lines from DripWorks.  Two lines across each square, each line with 6" spaced emitters.  Is this what you were thinking?

Yes, that is closer to what I had in mind.  Mind you, I have no experience - zero - with drip irrigation.  I don't know how much area each emitter is supposed to cover.  I just thought that putting a line right up against the sides of the bed would just wed the sides of the bed without giving much water to the plants.

If, for example, an emitter when run sufficiently long will provide water for 6" on each side of the emitter, it seems that one emitter in the center of each square would be sufficient to water the bed.  No cross pipes would be needed; one would need to provide hose or pipes in only one direction.

I suppose I'm just trolling for more information about drip irrigation.  I haven't invested the time yet to speak intelligently on the subject.  I was just asking about the efficacy of so much pipe at the margins and why the cross pipes are necessary.

True, I appreciate the tip. The problem I have with that though is it's very time consuming to make. If I had all the tools I'm sure I could make something similar but the time needed to go out and buy everything, cut the PVC, drill all the holes, and assemble it seems fairly intense compared to the $80 I would spend for the pre-made grid. 

Also apparently you can connect multiples together! Here's a pic

Crossing the PCV pipes would add stability to the shape. Maybe the pipes around the perimeter are solid and only the 3 and 3 are perforated?? Bob?? I do know that before I started using wood chip mulch, I had dry, hot surfaces. I then made these 6" emitters grids. At first I had the emitters across the ends, next to the wood. I stopped building them that way because I didn't want the wood overly wet, only the growing areas of the MM. Then I quit connecting the far ends so that I could move lines away from garlic when it was time to pull them.

I think gardening is just one experiment after another!

Sometimes we have no reason for what we do and this is the case of my perimeter PVC. I drilled holes in only the 2 inside pipes for each square. I guess if anything, it adds support in moving it around.

I just finished putting together grids for one 4' x 4' bed, and three 8' x 4'. I have not yet drilled the drip holes. I am intending to only use holes, and not emitters.

I've read various opinions on number and size of holes to drill. I would love to hear the experience of folks who've "been there, done that" and can expound a little on what they found.

Thanks in advance.

Docachna, Welcome to the Forum from California!

bnoles wrote:You may want to consider making your own.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9942-my-sfg-progress-pictures-9-4x4-with-fully-automated-watering

I made one like it and it works perfectly.

This is exactly what I am in the process of building.  I thought about leaving the perimeter out, but then I realized the inside four squares would get water from 4 sides each, the side squares would get water from 3 sides, and the poor corners would only get water from 2 sides of each square, and the plants right in the outside corner of those squares may not get much.

But I'm just a noob at this, and I haven't really gotten to try it yet.  I may have a totally different opinion by the end of the growing season.


Kate

Docachna,
Perhaps make  marks on your pipe work where you think a hole would work well and then only actually make a few holes with a very small drill bit . That way you can add a few more holes if the desired pattern is not met at the first go & if needs be you can increase the hole size rather than whacking in a hole that's too big first time around.


 The thing with a fixed grid is that it is exactly that it is fixed so once it's set you can't adjust if some plants  are doing terrific  when others are struggling because of too much water.

 My set up is very flexible, and not unduly expensive when compared to a rigid pipe work grid.
  I found that having adjustable micro spray heads on four foot long umbilicals of  1/4 " tube running off time clocked 1/2"  supply tubes. 
Mine can be set as single drips , a small coarse spray  or a fine 2 pints a minute micro spray , it  has been fantastically successful for me .
I simply taped a spray head to a length of kiddies tent pole stick ( 18 inches long x 1/3 " diameter and set the stick in the middle of the bed. One spray head set at a foot high covers the whole of the bed in one go ,  or it can be turned down to cover a little more than a single square foot and also moved around a bed to be placed in /by a more needy square .

I've toyed with something like that, too, but I'm wondering... Does it take much water pressure for that kind of a setup?  Reason I ask is, my primary water source is rain barrels, and they don't have a lot of flow pressure, like tap water would.


Kate

Me too, Kate.  And, of course, as water drains out of our containers, there's less pressure...

Docachna - Welcome to the forum from Atlanta, GA.  I've been to Mt. Juliet.  Nice area!

CitizenKate wrote:I've toyed with something like that, too, but I'm wondering... Does it take much water pressure for that kind of a setup?  Reason I ask is, my primary water source is rain barrels, and they don't have a lot of flow pressure, like tap water would.


Kate

 Initially I'd say No, they need water pressure and clean filtered water . However if you have access to a safe working handyman  using a pump off FreeCycle such as a Craig's List central heating pump  or the pump out of a dead dishwasher you can pump it up for a few minutes if you use a plug in timer unit .

 I seem to recall that you'd need a 20 foot head of water to get around 10 PSI ( best check that figure my brain is not as young as it was 50 years ago ). Some folk actually pump water up into a barrel set in a tree for this purpose .


My  spray units need a minimum  of 9 psi of clean filtered to work effectively as a spray , they  will work as a fast drip with very little pressure .

I looked at www.dripworks.com and they list the inline drip lines as working at even a low of 10 psi. Yes, Plantoid, that would be an elevation of about 20 feet.