Why ???

There sre so many products that work better are not all that expensive and easy to install ?

Good Day ...

You are proposing a reinvention of the wheel, in the form of a square. The result would not be satisfactory.

What are you seeking to water? Decades of innovation and refinement have gone into various forms of microirrigation. There is something that will work for your situation.

I've bought PVC with holes in it at either home depot or Lowe's, nobody would have know until pressurized ;) they sell metric PVC too miss-marked in standard inches.

OK.......I use black plastic to grow canalope and watermelons on. I'd like to place the PVC under the plastic in the spring and water as needed. I could also deliver fertilizer and insecticide if needed. The plastic is 3.5 feet wide and 30 feet long.

1/2 drip tubing, handful of 4gph emitters (e-2's would be cheap and effective)

at the most, what are you talking about? a $20 or $30 investment for tubing that will last well over 5-6years?

dp

For raised beds and small areas like that, I like the "soaker dripline" from Drip In (part of Toro). It is 1/4 inch tubing with a noncompensating emitter built in every 6 or 12 inches. Because the emitters are not pressure compensating, runs need to be limited in length and have pressure reduced to around 15 or 20 psi. Thus, fairly uniform flow from each emitter at fairly uniform pressure. They are nominally 1/2 gal/hr.

The 12 inch spacing would be okay for the 30 foot run. It would need a header of 1/2 inch drip hose at one end, barbed connectors, 100 ft roll of dripline (making 3 runs), and goof plugs or barbed tee to close ends.

The 6 inch spacing would not be uniform for 30 ft, so it would need to feed from both ends by 1/2 inch drip hose that goes across one end, down one side and across other end.

Some other equipment needed includes a screen or disk filter, pressure reducer that will handle the small flow, antisiphon for plain watering, fitting and closure(s) for 1/2 inch drip hose. A springwound or other valve timer probably would be handy. There are prudent requirements for protecting your and others' potable water from possible chemigation backflow.

Could you guys give me a website or chain store or somewhere I could purchase these items you talk about? I've never seen them before. Thanks again for your time....Ed

I emailed sparky NY directly about a supplier.

Why drip irrigation is available in CA:

Much of California expects late spring through early fall to be dry. We start the rainfall year in July, which is pretty reliably dry. Here is my local precipitation for last year and start of this year.

March through May were drier than we expect, November through February were variable though not extreme. Note total is near normal.

Santa Rosa, CA precipitation (inches)
July '03 0.03
Aug. '03 0.01
Sept. '03 0.07
Oct. '03 0.04
Nov. '03 3.19
Dec. '03 11.42
Jan. '04 3.44
Feb. '04 9.24
March '04 1.14
April '04 0.68
May '04 0.03
June '04 0.00
year 29.29
normal 31.01

recent
7/1-9/5 0.01

I use PVC to make my own systems. It is the only way to go around here since the gophers trash the drip tube.

On the really long lines, I don't use a pressure reducer. I put a gauge at the end of the line and extend the line until the number of jets drop the dynamic pressure to the design parameter; that is usually 20 pounds per square inch. Long lines, here, are defined as at least 100' long and of course the length of the line is dependent on the delivery pressure, and if the lines go up or down hill.

Micro-jet type sprayers spaced at six-foot intervals give double coverage when the low g.p.m. emitters are used. I do not recall the color combinations that I've used at the moment, but choose the least flow required for the 90 degree heads, double that flow rate for the 180 degree heads, and so forth to balance the g.p.m. to the area covered. The outlet where you purchase emitters should have a chart available that depicts the flow rate for the different emitters at various pressures; that will help you design your system

For short lines that require pressure regulation, I use the Senninger brand and choose based on the flow rate required. http://www.senninger.com/pages/ss-pres.html

I realize that you are interested in using PVC for drip line, but what I've outlined for micro-jets could be applied to a drip system.

Terran