Drip Irrigation

schristi69 5/21/2015, 2:00 am

I have not seen any information about watering in here. I might have been watering to much last year. How often do you water? What emitters(gph) are you using? How long do you water? I am going to mulch with straw this year to keep the moisture loss down. I am doing tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, okra, corn, cantaloupe, and watermelon this year

**sanderson** 5/21/2015, 2:35 am

schristi, I recently spoke with Mel regarding hand watering verses drip irrigation. Mel wants each plant to be hand watered so each plant gets just what it needs, some more water, some less. This allows one to get in tune with the plant's needs. He's right. But, I told him I couldn't travel in the summer if I had to hand water in our +100*F summers. Very Happy

We can only water 2 days a week so I still have to hand water with the hose wand the other days. Very Happy

Have you mulched before? I don't know how you would survive in your area without thick mulch. If the Mix is soggy down deep in the beds then you may be over-watering for the circumstances. Mulch will help reduce the amount of watering. If you enter 'drip irrigation' in the Search box, you will find a lot of posts regarding irrigation systems. Maybe you can tell us more about your drip irrigation setup and watering times.

schristi69 5/21/2015, 9:44 am

I was watering daily for 15 minutes, twice a day, using 1gph emitters during the hottest parts of summer, no mulch. Hand watering may be the recommended method, but that is not an option. I am currently watering every 2-3 days for 30 min and mulching with straw and will probably go to 30 min every 1-2 days when it gets hot. I have searched, but not found anything specific to the Phoenix area.

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