I've had much better luck with 1/2 inch drip that has built in emitters than the type where you insert emitters. My first concern outdoors would be where will it be, ground or suspended. If suspended the water might run down the tubing to a low point. Mine is on the ground in a greenhouse and has lasted several years. The plug in emitters start failing the first year.

Commercially many units use spray type emitters to wet a larger area.

Here is a link that might be useful: Drip Works 1/2 inch tubbing with emitters

Fruitnut,thanks for the link. Lots of companies selling drip stuff, mostly cheap looking. The company you linked to seems to have pretty good stuff. I keep going back to their web page. Right now they are at the top of my supplier list.

I'm going to run the feed lines on the ground, possibly bury them, not sure yet, but I don't see this as a big issue either way. I don't want to skimp on this system. Want it to be as high-end & reliable as possible. I'm pretty good with this kinda stuff and I don't see it as anything beyond my capabilities, seems pretty straight-forward. Hardest part is finding a source for quality components.

Bowsmith 2 gallons per hour is best they want stop up I used 12,000 Pecan blackberry.

A phd at united irrigation help me the experts call there for information all over usa.

Controller and timers work great there solenoid valves turn water on off.

I used well water no filter are pressure regular needed.

There yellow handle tool to cut hole in tubing then pop in Emitter add spaghetti line. Tubing main line is rainbird life is 20 years.

Congratulations on thinking about drip. There are going to be some hydraulic considerations in runs as long as 300' and elevation differences not to mention whether or not you'll be running lines off a header.

My system is a very simple one with 70' runs of 1/2 p.e. tubing with in line, pressure compensating emitters. Your soil will determine emitter spacing and flow rate. I.E., high flow rate emitters spaced 12" apart may cause puddling and runoff in some soils unless the system was cycled on and off.

It's the end of lunch or I'd give more thoughts - be sure to design the system with flush valves, very important for drip systems.

Before you go burying a system without first knowing how your soil handles the drip coming from the tubing you have, do a lot of testing first with the tubing on ground level where it will be easy to observe wetting patterns. If you are irrigating from a well, you sure don't want to have it running irrigation sets any longer than it needs to.

Ooops, back to work.

Oh, here's where Iv'e ordered my stuff from, great outfit so far. I really like their poly compression fitting selection, makes for easy installation and design as well as being able to take the components apart.

Here is a link that might be useful: Irrigation Direct

Michael357, thanks for the reply and link. That's a good suggestion about leaving everything above ground at first...definately what I'll do. Thanks!

My thoughts on the drip system so far is to run my main feed off the outside faucet, go to a check valve, pressure regulator, filter and fertilizer dispenser, from there a main feed line will run vertically up the slope for 300', lateral feed lines will branch off of the main feed. I'm sure I'm overlooking something as I just started researching drip systems. I don't know what size main feed or lateral feed lines to use yet, same with emitters. I plan on watering app 100 trees.

I'm toying with the idea of taking water off a tap inside the basement and installing all the peripherals inside the house on a basement wall with the main feed running thru the wall to the outside. All that would be outside would be the main feed line, laterals & emitters. This will make maintenance and winterization easy, plus pretty much eliminate theft or vandalism.

I want to install ball valves & quick disconnects between each component so I can remove a component for whatever reason, install a temporary splice line and be up and going with relatively no down time. Also putting pressure & flow gauges at several locations so I can monitor the system & easily diagnose problems.

Outside I want to use ball valves and quick disconnects at every lateral so I can perform maintenance on a section without taking the whole system off line.

Want to do something with the outside portion of the system so I can completely drain it and blow compressed air through it before the winter. Actually with the downhill slope, just uncapping the end of the main line should allow the system to drain itself.

I want to add a timer and flow control panel. Would be nice to use a dedicated laptop as the control & monitoring panel. Would be nice to be able to zone various parts of the system and control things from the pc, possibly monitor fertilizer application also. Anyone know of of software to do this?

Am I on the right track here? What am I overlooking?

None of this seems too difficult. The hardest part seems to be locating quality components, I'm seeing lots of cheap stuff, nothing looks really high end. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

Sounds like you're on the right track with the drip part, one thing though, put the filter downstream of the fert injection point.
The gauges are an excellent idea while trying to aide in figuring out how the darned thing is performing during and after installation assuming you aren't a hydraulic engineer or ag. irrigation specialist :) A simple test is to Time and capture the flow out of a number of emitters to check their actual output at say, the ends of a 300' run.

Speaking of ball valves, the ones I got from that link that are installed in-line in the 1/2" p.e. tubing worked very well for me all year. I used one at the start of each line just off the header.

Just in case you haven't thought of it already, after the system is assembled, flush it thoroughly BEFORE you pressurize it. Those in-line emitters can easily get plugged with soil, etc. that can get into the lines during assembly.

Just curious, what are you planning to use for a fert. injector? Oh BTW, 2 check valves would be better than one, FWIW, if you are on a municipal water supply, they (or your state) may require a (rather expensive) RPZ valve to inject fert.. Assuming your house is down hill from the system when installed, you definitely don't want to have 0 psi at the house and find your system back feeding into your household plumbing or that of your neighbors when the town water tower goes dry, OOPS!

Michael357, we seem to be thinking alike with our drip systems. I'm most definately not a hydraulic engineer or ag guy LOL. I enjoy tinkering with projects like this.

I did all the plumbing in my house when I built it. Plumbing seems to be common sense. When I did the house plumbing I put ball valves, couplers and gauges everywhere (and I really do mean everywhere), added a little to the plumbing expense but paid for itself many times over in troubleshooting and ease of repair. Any component in my house plumbing can be easily bypassed (I built in bypasses) and removed without affecting anything else, I'm going to follow thru with this design with the drip system

I don't have any specific fert inj in mind yet. Still looking. The ones I've looked at so far all look pretty cheaply made yet are expensive. I don't mind paying good money for a product as long as I get something of value in return. I'm estimating a decent fert inj is going to run somewhere around $1K. Any suggestions? Here's a link to one that I'm looking at, looks kinda cheaply built though,

http://www.dripworksusa.com/store/mixrite.php

I know I want a pump type fert inj not a syphon inj.

I've found a couple companies out there that seem to have quality products, the problem is they want to bundle their product with design, installation and support contracts. I know they are getting their system components somewhere, all I have to figure out who the mfgr is. I want to do everything myself. I'm planning on purchasing components sometime between now and next spring, with a completed system in place by then.

My house already has a backflow preventer installed (actually 2, I added the second as a backup) so I don't see any problem there. I was already planning on adding a backflow preventer on the main water line that's leading to the the drip equipment.

Jim: you might look into a Dosatron unit for injection, they are very reliable and some models have adjustable rates.

Why don't you want to go with a venturi type? Mazzei has a large line of them and they are very reliable, as with the Dosatron, you do have to select the right model. With the Mazzei units, you do have to come up with more elaborate plumbing to make is work properly than the Dosatron. Inlet and outlet pressure differentials must be maintained on a venturi or they can either backflow down the injection line or just not suck up anything. Dosatrons just pump the solution into the water stream.

Jim:

If you don't mind my asking why do you think you need this system in NE PA? Is your soil shallow and/or droughty?

Excess water and fertilizer will reduce fruit eating quality.

Fruitnut, why do I think I need a drip irrigation system in NE PA? Well.....I don't think I NEED it, I like tinkering with stuff and figured it sure couldn't hurt....but I do have a second reason....

About 3 years ago when I was planting 20 new trees I thought I would goof around and see if I could make a better watering system than just rain or a soaker hose.

Here's what I did; I bought several 8' lengths of 1/2" PVC and some caps. I cut the PVC into 2' lengths and drilled a series of holes thru it. Through trial and error I determined the right size and amount of holes to give me app 5 gallons of flow per hour. Drilled all the PVC tubes and glued caps on one end. Whenever I plant a tree anymore I put this PVC tube into the hole with the tree and bury it along with the root ball leaving about 2" sticking out of the ground. I slip an unglued cap over the exposed end to keep it from filling up with debris. Next I got about 50 5 gallon buckets (get them for free from a local store that throws them away), I drilled them to accept the rubber grommet I'll mention next. Next I bought rubber grommets that gave me a snug fit over the 1/2" PVC and popped them into the hole I drilled in the bucket. Once a week during the growing season I put a bucket over the PVC that's in the ground and fill it up with water and once a month I add a tablespoon of water solulible fertilizer. It's amazing how great those trees are doing and how great the fruit tastes in relation to about 30 trees that aren't watered this way. Like night & day.

This is what got me thinking about a drip irrigation system. I'll be honest..I'm not sure if I want to change what I have it works so good. Granted it is a little time intensive filling up a bunch of buckets but it gives me a change to relax and just kick back and look the trees over while I'm filling the buckets.

Will I go drip? It's 50/50 at this point. If anything I'm learning about it and what's involved. I'm not too impressed with what I've seen so far, looks pretty expensive for what seems to be cheap plastic stuff. Granted if I had several acres of orchard and my livelyhood depended on my trees I would probably do it, but for 100 trees I might just stick with my PVC system.

If I do decide to put in a drip system I might just do it for several trees as a test and see what I think. I kinda like the micro sprinklers better than the drip or maybe a combination of both. I'll keep researching irrigation systems in the meantime.

Michael357, the reason I don't want a venturi system is for the exact reason you mention. A pump system always works (unless the pump craps out). I wasn't aware of Dosatron, I'll look into them.

I am not a hydrolic engineer. I work with hydrolic's weekly please look up the math also. A 113' foot rise in a 1"pipe holds a cubic foot of water. a cubic foot of water weighs 59 lbs. a 60 psi home pump system would shut off there with an open hose. I helped a plumber put 2 helper pumps in to have a house pump get water to there garden. The home owner called him and wanted a more powerfull house pump (money was no object). A house pump that powerfull would distroy fixtures. we put one pump at 80 vertical feet and another at 150'. Smaller hose size lessens weight but reduces rate.Yes my mother says I can figure dispersal rate of a tank mix, on a coverage area, and speed of sprayer but couldn' spell cat if if you spotted me ca.

Ravenh: I'm not certain what you are geting at specifically in your example but... the important considerations are head ft. of water, pipe I.D. and flow rate.

Head ft. = 0.43 psi/ft elevation of the column of water. I.E. 113' x 0.43 = 48.59 psi. that's just the beginning of what a pressurized/pumping system has to overcome to get water moving in the column regardless of the I.D. or the pipe.

Then comes friction loss in the pipe, generally, the smaller the I.D., the greater the flow loss in gpm.

The other key consideration is the desired flow rate. In a drip system, flow rate is rather slow and causes negligible friction loss. High flow rates combined with small I.D pipe requires relatively high pressure. Imagine trying to get 10 gpm through a drinking straw, you'd really have to push that water hard (high pressure). If the straw was 100' longer the friction loss would be very high and you'd have to push much harder to get that 10 gpm rate.

To add a bit more, adding fittings to a system will cause additional pressure and flow losses (ask an engineer for those tables).

I am sorry I did only the simple math.the rest of the? are left to people who are smarter than me.