Drip Irragation in SFG

I live in the Pensacola, Florida area. I am getting ready to buy a drip irragation system for my SFG. I have several and don't have time to hand water. I need to know how far apart to place the tubing and also how far apart should the holes be.

Linda J

I just watched Patti Moreno's youtube video about this over the weekend. I found it by searching square foot garden on youtube. She's fun to watch and tells you exactly what she used.

Have fun!

n.

nancy wrote:I just watched Patti Moreno's youtube video about this over the weekend. I found it by searching square foot garden on youtube. She's fun to watch and tells you exactly what she used.

Have fun!

n.

Thank you so much. I watched her video, very helpful. I watched several of her videos and she is very entertaining and educational!

Picked up a small drip irrigation system from harbor freight http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=93261 but have yet to install it due to the beautiful florida weather we have been haveing lol when i got home there was a flyer in the bag with a coupon for a another system for $4.99 but it was 50ft shorter so i went back and now have 250ft to figure out how to set up lol

not sure how well its going to work but i figure for $15 its worth a shot if not it will be back to the drawing board

Let me know how it works. After watching the video, I am really excited about getting started.

Hi john im going to try to work on it today will post up pics as soon as i can

OK i got the main portion of the drip system down but have changed my mind about what i bought from harbor freight not worth the money the only thing that is in the kit that is worth the $10 was the tubeing the T's and the stakes the rest is junk. The anti flow back adapter has a bad diaphram so its constantly leaks not letting any water get to the system for a test, the 3/4 to 1/4 inch reducing coupler has machine threads instead of hose threads so i had to replace both the flowback and the reduceing couplers $14 at lowes the emitters worked ok but the stream is far to narrow to do any good and some of the hardware was so cheap it broke upon instalation so all in all if you need cheap tubeing this is the way to go (100ft at lowes was $28) but be prepared to replace some essential parts in order for this system to work. will let you know how much the new emmiters cost when i get them tomorrow and will have pics of the system when its up and running.

Lesson learned econimcal/cheap is not always the best way to go

There's a time to be cheap, and there's a time to bite the bullet. The trick is to know when each one is appropriate!

I hear ya there steve but as always the gears are well greased and the mind is churning out new ideas for projects left and right and my polish engineering will prevail

My step dad just bought a new Camera maybe he will let me use it to shoot a small video that i can post

boffer wrote:There's a time to be cheap, and there's a time to bite the bullet. The trick is to know when each one is appropriate!

I have been looking online at Drip Depot, they have kits for raised beds. I talked to customer service who is very heplful. You will need to let them know what size area and you can add on if you need to. The only thing I would change is the 1/4" vinyl tubing, I would replace it with 1/4" polyethylene tubing, it doesn't been quite as well, but at least it is safe.

I am also going to check at Lowes and Home Depot and see what they have, I am afraid of ordering online then need some little .35 item and have to order it!

I have also checked about the safety of water hoses, etc that we use in our gardens. I am changing all my hoses to drinking safe hoses, as the garden hoses are not safe. I spend all this time making sure that everything in my garden is organic and use safe insecticides that now I am changing the worse culprit, water hoses!

MY house smelt like burnt wood for awhile today but when all was said and done this is what it turned out

Roughly 10gph (gallons per hour) and total cost was just around $60 total (even after my initial screw up

Bed 1


Bed 2


and sinc ei wa sin Lowes so long today i took the liberty of jotting down the information on the pieces you would need with a rough esstimate of cost

Polyethylene tubeing 1/4" 100ft $16
1/4" T's 10 per pack $4
staked emitters 10 gph 3 per pack $4

Do the emitters produce a spray? I was thinking of using the 1/4" dripline with 6" spacers down each row.

According to the packageing they can be adjusted to a drip or a spray i havent had time to mess with them yet as far as paterns i just got the system hooked up and tested to make sure everything flowed properly and no leaks ill be tinkering with it tomorrow to see what tweaks i can make this was just the genral design

My Model A was 3 lengths of 1/2" pvc pipe, hooked together with 11" dividers a bunch (5) T-Connectors and 3 corners to fit the row dividers. I got a pvc -> hose connector, and drilled a whole bunch of holes in the thing. When connected to a rain barrel it watered the whole plot very nicely, thank you. Then I realized that I had built a permanent system, as once the plants grew, I couldn't move it.
So I went to Model B. Model A cost something like $15.00

Model B, or watering wand, is just a simple length 1/2" x 43", with holes spaced every 3". I capped the long end, and put a hose connector on the working end. I can lay the thing in rows, between rows or even along rows. The feed hose is long enough to reach to any 4 boxes from the center of the garden, so I just have to sit, stand there, and move it every 5 minutes or so. I have enough gravity feed from the rain barrels to make the whole thing work quite well.

I read mention of using drinking water hose to water a garden. Personally, I am using collected rain water from the roof with washed off bird guano, pollen, and associated other things. I think that after the moisture soaks into the ground, is filtered by the dirt, absorbed and refiltered by the plant, and it's roots, if there are any trace elements left, it's also in the air I breathe. It don't make any difference.

By the way, the pvc pipe was laying around the shed waiting for something to happen to it. I think my total cost for the end cap and hose connector was something like $3.99

Now that I've larn'ed how to post pictures, here's the simple way.



This is Model A - connected to rain barrel. Good but not too good as it can't be moved from plot to plot.

Simple pvc with end cap - connected to hose connected to rain barrel. Drilled holes 3 inches apart. Can be moved to each row - section - area - plot as desired.



Easier to handle - cheap too.

Nice set up PransomeHince. Practical and easy way to water from a rain barrel. Thanks for sharing the pics.

Very nice set up Pran i thouhgt i had figured out a way to make the sqaure unit movable but looking closer at the pic i see that there is some hardware cloth enclosing the bed so that blows my idea out of the water but if you put on some hose quick connects it might make it easier for you to switch the hose out from box to box unless its a dedicated hose just a thought

choksaw wrote:Very nice set up Pran i thouhgt i had figured out a way to make the sqaure unit movable but looking closer at the pic i see that there is some hardware cloth enclosing the bed so that blows my idea out of the water but if you put on some hose quick connects it might make it easier for you to switch the hose out from box to box unless its a dedicated hose just a thought

I bit the dust and ordered a drip irrigation system from Drip Works. I have 7 beds (362 squares) plus hanging baskets and pots to water which takes about an hour a day. I will use a timer that will come on early in the morning. It worries me that hand watering early will cause wilt and fungus when the plants are wet. I will install this weekend and will let you know how it works.