Thank you for your great explanation of your experience with drip irrigation for home gardening vs. commercial. I’m very new at gardening. I live in a central coast California zone 9. I have started to use many different methods of watering. Mostly drip with different regulated emitters being 1/2 -2 gallons. Just added some vego garden wicking cells to some 17” high vego beds. Olla watering clay pots also trying this season for raised beds. Last but not least garden hose. I’ve been enjoying watching your videos. 😊
Hi Corey- I installed drip last year as well. I am still working out a few of the kinks you experienced. Hope this information helps. I do have arthritis in my hands so I used a small propane hand torch and warmed the end of the tubing just a bit and the emitters slipped right on. (My husband’s idea). After losing water pressure, I inserted an on/off valve and created three different zones and turned one zone at a time. I am investing in a four zone timer this year. I am on a well, so metered emitters and a zone system seemed to be a good solution so far. By fall I seemed to have a pretty good system but certainly not 100%. I am giving it one more year of tinkering, if I cannot crack the code, I will be going back to the hose…. Thank you for taking the time to talk about your experience. Sometime we all can learn from less than desirable results.
Thanks! I've been very curious about the Olla clay pots, be sure to let me know how they work. I'm amazed at how many colors are available for the Vego beds.
Thanks for the info... and letting us know your process. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who needs to tinker a bit (sometimes it seems like some people can get things right on the first try... that's not always the case with me). Really like the torch suggestion!!! Good luck... hope you "crack the code."
Thank you for your experienced info. I need to start figuring out an irrigation system this summer and you helped me think about things I wouldn't have anticipated.
Building a mini irrigation system with solely 4mm/micro/spaghetti tubing always runs into issues quite quickly. This is due to the limited volume of water that can pass through a narrow tube. The first emitter takes the available water first and each subsequent emitter has less available water to use. Water is non compressible so the tube can’t be forced to supply more. A larger diameter supply pipe, say 13mm, could be used and each micro tube and emitter connected directly to the supply pipe. The supply pipe could run along a beam with micro tube dropping to individual pots. Drip emitters are outstanding for pots giving a slow measured amount of water allowing it to soak into the soil media. Drip and spray type emitters should not share the same supply pipe as all the pressure will be released by the sprays and the drippers will not have the required pressure to function correctly
In our growing areas we have the larger tubing with spaghetti tubing coming off of it… and that works great. I will say, there were no issues with water pressure with the regulated emitters in the WaterWise system… so that one gets the job done if you need 50 emitters or less.
I put drip in my flower beds last year. I had the same issue with water pressure and too many emitters. We are planning to redo it this season with a sprinkler type emitter. 🤞🏻
Thank you for sharing this Corey. I was planning on installing drip irrigation last year in a few garden beds. I made a list of things to buy..never did it. Decided if they need water more than twice a week, they need a new home..lol Have you tried the Proven Winners self-watering inserts?
Thank you for your great explanation of your experience with drip irrigation for home gardening vs. commercial. I’m very new at gardening. I live in a central coast California zone 9. I have started to use many different methods of watering. Mostly drip with different regulated emitters being 1/2 -2 gallons. Just added some vego garden wicking cells to some 17” high vego beds. Olla watering clay pots also trying this season for raised beds. Last but not least garden hose.
I’ve been enjoying watching your videos. 😊
Hi Corey- I installed drip last year as well. I am still working out a few of the kinks you experienced. Hope this information helps. I do have arthritis in my hands so I used a small propane hand torch and warmed the end of the tubing just a bit and the emitters slipped right on. (My husband’s idea). After losing water pressure, I inserted an on/off valve and created three different zones and turned one zone at a time. I am investing in a four zone timer this year. I am on a well, so metered emitters and a zone system seemed to be a good solution so far. By fall I seemed to have a pretty good system but certainly not 100%. I am giving it one more year of tinkering, if I cannot crack the code, I will be going back to the hose…. Thank you for taking the time to talk about your experience. Sometime we all can learn from less than desirable results.
Thanks! I've been very curious about the Olla clay pots, be sure to let me know how they work. I'm amazed at how many colors are available for the Vego beds.
Thanks for the info... and letting us know your process. It's reassuring to know that I'm not the only one who needs to tinker a bit (sometimes it seems like some people can get things right on the first try... that's not always the case with me). Really like the torch suggestion!!! Good luck... hope you "crack the code."
Thank you for your experienced info. I need to start figuring out an irrigation system this summer and you helped me think about things I wouldn't have anticipated.
Be sure to report back on how it goes!
Building a mini irrigation system with solely 4mm/micro/spaghetti tubing always runs into issues quite quickly. This is due to the limited volume of water that can pass through a narrow tube. The first emitter takes the available water first and each subsequent emitter has less available water to use. Water is non compressible so the tube can’t be forced to supply more. A larger diameter supply pipe, say 13mm, could be used and each micro tube and emitter connected directly to the supply pipe. The supply pipe could run along a beam with micro tube dropping to individual pots. Drip emitters are outstanding for pots giving a slow measured amount of water allowing it to soak into the soil media. Drip and spray type emitters should not share the same supply pipe as all the pressure will be released by the sprays and the drippers will not have the required pressure to function correctly
In our growing areas we have the larger tubing with spaghetti tubing coming off of it… and that works great.
I will say, there were no issues with water pressure with the regulated emitters in the WaterWise system… so that one gets the job done if you need 50 emitters or less.
I put drip in my flower beds last year. I had the same issue with water pressure and too many emitters. We are planning to redo it this season with a sprinkler type emitter. 🤞🏻
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 Good luck!!!
Thank you for sharing this Corey. I was planning on installing drip irrigation last year in a few garden beds. I made a list of things to buy..never did it. Decided if they need water more than twice a week, they need a new home..lol
Have you tried the Proven Winners self-watering inserts?
Haven’t tried the inserts yet. None of our distributors were carrying them yet.