about a books worth ....

first .... you posted this in the tree forum ... after the first year.. trees don't need irrigation period ... unless you are in production.. and if you are.. you shouldn't be asking us ...

john deere bought out rainbird a few years back .. they have some great info on their website ... i would seriously recommend contacting a salesman for a visit ... do NOT wait until spring.. when the nurseries gear up ... between now and late January.. would probably get you some good personal help ...

beyond that.. only a few basic questions:

whats the budget...
whats the soil..
what are you watering...
are there hills ....
well or city water..
if well.. pump capacity and bladder tank capacity ..

i mean really .. i can give you some ideas.. but i need a starting place ....

and.. i wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't an irrigation forum. though i have never looked for it...

good luck .. irrigation saved my sanity on 5 acres with 1500 hosta ... the 400 conifers and 100 trees.. dont get irrigation

ken

Ken,
I do think there is a little broader answer to this question as I did put in temporary direct irrigation to the woodland areas of my property knowing full well that after the second year It would only be necessary in times of draught. Well living off the coast of New England Times of Draught were ridiculously unlikely until this year. Now many years since installation the direct tubing (Toro) has been easily displaced or redirected even with tube picks. This has left me feeling that I will no longer invest in trees and shrubs without permanent irrigation...not just something to get them through their first two years. kt

i started by putting in a spigot system .. akin to spigots all over the 5 acres... like one might find in a cemetery ... above and below ground.. so it needs to be blown out as winter nears ...

then off this system i put in drip irrigation ... where it was needed ....

so one could be considered a 'supply' system .. and independent drip system ....

ken

Drip irrigation, to me, is almost a despicable method. Even in Southern Oregon, where its often dryer than up north.

With good soil prep, and proper timing, and mulch, I think sprinklers can be better many times.

I'd rather run PVC deeper, and "T" off for limited drip or micro-spray.

As stated above, trees often need little or no irrigation once established.

M. D. Vaden of Oregon

First off, thanks for your replies. I posted in the Tree forum because as of right now, my post in the Irrigation forum still has no follow up. I have justified this by assuming that people interested in landscaping with trees might be interested in drip irrigation, and also, people use this forum a lot. By the way, trees do need irrigation sometimes; obviously trees need water to get established, but once established, if they do not get water in periods of drought and high temps, they will suffer. I am pretty much set on drip irrigation. I have learned that irrigating an area of soil with no plants (usually a by-product of sprinkler systems) always results in more weeds. Also, plants seem to like the slow watering rate of drip irrigation much more. Anyways, my question still goes unanswered. Please, any experience with the durability of drip irrigation systems?

PE tubing last 20 years in sun get roll soft 1/2 rainbird tubing you can walk on it a long time comes in 1000 ft roll and smaller ones you can run water an emitters up to 400 feet at time with this tubing adding bowsmith emitters 2 gph 80 of these use 160 gallons in hour most well pumps supply this much. polyethelene =PE tubing blue strip is on tubing. If have more tubing to put out a main line larger and pump will be needed this system can be used without pressure regulator clogging be no problem adding black tubing to the emmitter is good way to direct water to plants 1/8 tubing

Since when has it become so customary to assume that every one's priorities and expectations must so closely mirror one's own?

I'll say and do many things because the ability to actually think, to see obverse sides of questions, is disappearing. Right and wrong are rarely black and white.

I can think of many reasons why a person would want to install an irrigation system of some kind: It enhances home value, can make a home easier to sell. If one has extensive landscaping, the cost of installing and maintaining an irrigation system is but a fractional cost of the potential replacement price of that landscaping...call it cheap insurance. You happen to live in area that just doesn't receive much rainfall.

Yet if one considers themselves to be such a plantsman and someone suggests an idea they don't agree with...oops, sorry, there's only room for one ego in this place...and the rest of you are going to burn right next the devil, Dr. Mike Dirr.

My suggestion for irrigation: Unless you like to tinker and fix things, find someone local to help you out. Most irrigation systems are relatively trouble free, but like anything else in a home, there's always the possibility of needing to fix things. It's mostly pretty simple, but there's always something that needs tweaking: A spaghetti line pops off the barb, an emitter gets broken, a rodent chews a line, some water somehow was left in and the line froze, you sliced through something with a shovel. Most of these are easily fixed and require minimal tools and less knowledge or experience, only the willingness to deal with it.

The longevity of these things is most likely going to outlive you, or at least your ownership of that property. Most plastic breaks down due to exposure to sunlight, and the whole idea is to bury the lines, however shallow.

My best advice would be to keep the spaghetti lines short.

I am a little late on this response, but that last message does not make any sense. Was that aimed at me or someone else? Am I going to burn next to the devil? And who is Mike Dirr anyways?