Irrigation

It works out pretty nice to have that slope in your yard. Better water pressure from the rain collection system.

Oh, yeah! I can definitely tell the difference from the upper beds to the lower...

Ran across a great link a little bit ago as I was wandering around. It's a pretty solid "how to" on setting up a watering system built from PVC, courtesy of the Utah State University Extension office. (http://extension.usu.edu)


PDF: http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/horticulture_home_2008-02pr.pdf

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOpvLFwjS1g



I know several have tried such a thing with mixed results, and while YMMV with this, it seems that this setup has hit on what most of the attempts have been missing. Water pressure regulation.

Here's the gist of it all:

- 3/4" pipe

- 1/16" holes (spacing 6" apart)

- Main pipe, with lateral offshoots. At the head of each offshoot line is a ball valve. (this is the key)

- Main pipe up to the ball valves are glued, from the back side out is dry fit.

- Dry fit pipes allow for configuration changes, plugging lines, etc.



Overall it seems pretty logical, and I think I may give it a shot. While I've had success with the micro sprinklers, they're just not down to the level I'd really like to be at as they sit a little higher. Plus with a drip style system I can better mulch around the beds.

One concern I have with this is that it's more of a squirt than a real drip, but I think that with being able to adjust the pressure to each run it may prove to be a good solution between emitters all over and using the micro sprayers.

StrongAsMeat wrote:Can I ask why most of you use fancy watering systems and not just use a hose with a multi nozzle sprayer? 

Thanks

Time and convenience for me.

a) With a lot of beds/squares to cover, it's tough to be able to get out and water every plant, every day.

b) What happens when you need to be away for a couple days? A week? Two weeks?

c) Did I water today? Am I sure?

One thing he said in the video, and he stressed this, is that the lines in the beds need to be level. The feed line did not need to be level but the secondary lines do.
I am wondering if that may be the cause of some of the issues folks here have seen

That's a good question.

I did make a note that it needed be level, but that as level as possible is fine.


One thing I could see becoming an issue over time would be from settling and decomposition. Could probably be managed without much fuss though.


Not real sure how I would lay something like this out for my garden since it's an L shape. Thinking that I could have the main supply follow the length of the entire bed, then that would make each secondary pipe no longer than 4ft. That short of a distance with a heavy schedule PVC won't bend, so I should be able to rig something up to keep it level.

I'm considering putting secondaries every 2ft and using the "both sides" method he described. Not to use less pipe, but to save as much room as possible.


I'm still digging this idea though. Especially with the dry fit pipes and being able to cap runs you don't need that year.

Here is a link to Tred1956's post: New Raised Bed with Watering Grid...
He successfully set his up with good flow out of the holes.
Since his worked, that makes him an expert in my book and he may be easier to get a hold of to ask questions than the guy at the Univ of Utah

In answer to the question of way use anything but hand watering~  I never watered enough.  When I switched to drip watering/ over head sprinkling I had healthier plants and better yields.  When I added an automatic valve on the faucet I found the plants did even better.  Enough water really matters.

I have used a lot of 1/2" soaker hose.  I find that with my soil and conditions a soaker running through a square is enough for all but young seedlings (those need to be hand watered).  Most of my beds are 3x8, 24 sgf and a 25' length of soaker hose does a good job.   Last year I tried out and find I like and hope to expand using this product Snip n Drip .  It is the connectors that are great, they work on my varied collection of old soaker hoses.

Hope that helps

ralitaco wrote:One thing he said in the video, and he stressed this, is that the lines in the beds need to be level. The feed line did not need to be level but the secondary lines do.
I am wondering if that may be the cause of some of the issues folks here have seen

In my case, the problem was, there was hardly any water coming out of the holes. The fixture was level and what little did come out, came out evenly. I later learned that I probably drilled too many holes in each section - I wanted more holes for more even coverage over the entire square - so there was not enough pressure building up in the pipes to expel the water with much force.

If I try it again, I'll just put no more than 3 or 4 holes per section. 1 or 2 is not enough for my satisfaction, because that just gives you a piddle of water in one or two spots, and Mel's Mix drains so fast, the water will not have a chance to spread out before traversing to the bottom.

Here is my Mother's Day present.

It probably doesn't look very impressive to the rest of you, but for me it's PERFECT!   I had a very serious problem because my butterfly host plants MUST be watered from the bottom when eggs and caterpillars are present to keep from accidentally washing them off their leaves. 

Drip systems and soaker hoses didn't work for me because the plants were already established so I couldn't get them installed properly (maybe just my ineptitude). 

A regular hose with a wand didn't work because the heads are too big (I'd knock the caterpillars off trying to get to the bottom of the plants.

Regular hose nozzles didn't work because I couldn't get to the base of the plants if they were more than a foot away.

This was Daughter's brilliant solution. She found a wand with a screw-off head (which isn't easy), attached a lightweight plastic nozzle, and now I have the perfect contraption for gently watering my butterfly host plants, container plants, & sfg beds, all from the bottom and no wasted water. 

Nice!

I think your gift is wonderful!  It's always great when you get the perfect tool for something unusual by that you regularly need to accomplish.

Looks like a nice gift, Country!  Love seeing innovation at work!

How wonderful that your daughter took the time to come up with something specific for you and not some off the shelf thing (like I did for my mom this year).

Very thoughtful gift! You did good. Raised right.

She's the best daughter a mom could want and so is her daughter. My mom and her mom were special, too, and my great great grandmother was named "Experience Gold." I wish I had known her. With a name like that, I can only imagine what she must have been like.