If Myrle gets on here or I see her she has all her plants with drip and i think has tried them all. My luck would be the pipe comes off and I drain or well lol but may have to try it too. Maybe an auto shut down??

Steve, I just bought the drip emitter kit from Home Depot, so take my opinion with that in mind. I just did a 14' planter box with the emitters. I was planning on adding the hanging baskets in the front a little later.

It was a mess. First, you had to use a device to reduce the water pressure. Then everytime I turned it on, something broke. Everytime you turned it off, it shook all the pipes in the whole house (maybe it was vice versa). Then it got stopped up. With those tiny little orifices, it just wouldn't work on an ongoing basis. You were always taking it apart to find where it was stopped up. I never got it to work on an ongoing basis.

On the other hand, I had a really simple system that worked perfectly everytime until it died. It used that black round hose made from recycled tires. Home Depot had the fittings, which are no longer manufactured by Fiskars. You just cut it where you needed to and inserted the T's, corners and caps where needed. It finally died, but it worked well. (There's now a similar system available online, I think.)

If I were going to do it again, I would try to avoid anything that had all those pressure reducers or little tiny parts. They are too prone to stopping up.

I would work on the KISS principle as I planned this system. I would not do "Tim the Tool Man" on this project.

fwiw

bkay

if you think you will go whole hog into it..

then bury 1 inch supply line ... .. and then T off that to each bed..

if you are in suburbia .. you could do this.. by simply going around the lot perimeter ... on the surface.. i bet no one would ever see it ...

on my FLAT ... lined out beds.. i use tape.. it is very restricted as to basically straight lines ...

if you need to weave in and out.. i would go with something like techline.. at the link

also.. the tape requires pressure regulators.. to 8 pounds per zone.. and with my well i can run 3 HUGE zones at one time.. thereby taking only 24 of 55 pounds pressure.. the idea.. is that the 24# off the top.. opens the bladder tank.. and i run off the well pump ... if you are city water.. never mind that ...

also.. with a well you will need a $15 filter on your spigot ...

i would say.. that 80 % of my supply line.. is above ground ... only under.. in the lawn ... and since i BLOW IT OUT in fall ... it really only need be a few inches under the sod.. think straight shovel.. edging.. and stomping the grass back down ...

on the 5 acres.. i paid an irrigation guy with a big zamboni like machine [not quite.. lol].. to run spigots... aka supply line ... ALL OVER THE YARD... he showed me one connection.. and i did the rest.. also.. the $500 did not include the cost of the line itself ... but one inch supply line is really cheap...... so in theory.. i am probably within 25 feet of supply.. anywhere in the yard ...

so.. think outside the box.. of thinking you need to bury it all ...

i wish you could just drive over.. in 2 hours.. and a digital camera.. i could have you set up.. and ready to go ...

today.. over 10 hours.. i have dripped about 750 hosta.. with water to 6 inches deep ... for the cost of running the wellhead on 220 ... in 98 degree heat.. only walking out there twice.. to open and close 3 zones ...

ken

Here is a link that might be useful: link

ya know..

you are probably smart enough.. to find the members directory.. and simply call me ...

maybe we should make a date for some evening.. and we can talk about it...

ken

I used those 50 ft perforated hoses which weep, and after 5 years I have many cracks and needed to fix them repeatedly, so I gave up. With KISS I use four 50 ft hoses, 3 overhead sprinklers and run at 8 different locations each 1 hour every week, is running right now. In the past I also used tapes, but they also cracked then.
Good luck!
Bernd

I have a friend who uses the Dripworks system and loves it. She said it was very easy to figure out and put together. You can even fax Dripworks a sketch of your area, and they'll recommend what would work best for you. They have several different systems for differing needs. Dripworks is having a sale right now that runs through July 3rd.

Deanna

Here is a link that might be useful: Dripworks

Here's a thought, something that I know others before me have encountered.

While not 'strictly' drip emitters (such as I use on a 'hanging' vegetable garden), we've used 'weeping soaker' hoses to keep Hosta beds in a lot of sun watering-free.

That has worked very well, mostly, but this year I had to red-flag several Hosta that were obviously shrinking to the point of imminent death, and found that even with a sharpened shovel, I could only just cut through the invasive tree roots that had SEEKED the soaker hose and surrounded it and the adjacent Hosta.

This is not the first time I've encountered this. There have been threads here and elsewhere regarding 'spot' watering our desired plants only to find that nearby plants can and do find that wonderful constant source of life, H2O.

I loved not having to hand-water those plants in an area that didn't 'fit' into a sprinkler system layout, but my carpel-tunnels are screaming at me now that all those years of not having to hand-water those beds are now extracting their revenge as I have to dig out and hand RIP out the extensive roots from other nearby plants.

Whining about a problem without offering a possible solution isn't my style, so here's what we've found good (AT LEAST SO FAR, check back in a few or several years, teehee).

Now we line the planting holes with COMMERCIAL GRADE weed barrier (like thin fibre cloth, NOT plastic), and if the available width isn't sufficient to line the hole, triple sew the pieces together to serve).

As to appropriate width, see HL and the in-linked HD (Hosta Database) or the various Schmid, Zilis, or other books to find what clump size may happen at maturity.

This stuff lets moisture pass, but blocks (most) tree roots.

That said, if you leave ANY gaps, aggressive nearby roots WILL 'Press On Regardless'.

Yeah, old fashioned sprinkling is regarded as 'wasteful', but we've found that watering the whole area lets the trees and other plants find water they need and want, so they don't do the seeker mode to raid where we've tried to give only our desired plants moisture.

I wrote this 'off-hand' without taking the 'porch time' to consider my response, so it is probably somewhat 'rambling', and left out some connecting thoughts. Bump me to clarify if I'm too unconnected with the thoughts here.

This week, as usual, we have children, grand-children, in-laws and out-laws visiting our 'up north heaven', so any response may be retarded, errrr, delayed . ..

hh

I've looked at Dripworks and also at Drip Depot. I'm on city water so I'm not worried about adapting to a well. I know that the tape won't work for me because my beds and plants curve a lot, and tape has to be in a straight line. That dripline in the link is interesting, Ken, and it might be useful, the problem is that the amount of water released is considerable and there is no guarantee that the 6 or 9 or 12 inch intervals will be near your plant's root zone. I'm probably going to have to look at different types of emitters.

I'm thinking of starting small with a bed that is near a water source, but I know at some point that if I want to irrigate those back beds by the big rock I'll have to get a water source at the back of my property, but I want to do it without digging everything up.

That one inch line that you use Ken, is that above ground polyethelene tubing? When you say you blow out the line for winter, do you do that with a compressor or just drain it through gravity at a low point?

Steve

I use both an irrigation system to cover a few acres as described by Ken (and pump water from a river) ... and as well I have had good success with drip irrigation for a few difficult to water areas using the Orbit parts from Home Depot.

To winterize, I disconnect all the lines from the manifolds and then blow each line out separately using about 35 pounds air pressure from my compressor.

The full irrigation is driven by a 220 volt pump that gives me about 30 pounds pressure at a 30 foot head - it has worked very very well for 10 years now ... and the river water is lightly fertilized naturally and with a bit of farm runoff. The drip irrigation runs from my pressure tank/well and nominally is set to about 32 pounds pressure. By the time water is fed through a standard garden hose used as a supply line to the manifold, the pressure is vastly reduced and I have never had problems with either blowing things apart or with lines clogging.

It does make the task of slaking the thirst of those water loving hostas a lot easier. Hard for me to complain listening to everyone else since here in the very bottom of zone 4 (almost zone 3) even 30C (86F) is considered verrrry hot and only occurs a few times each summer.

I used a black flexible pipe (HD has it in rolls), probably 1/2 inch, to connect a 5-faucet extension at the house to a faraway bed under the lawn. I actually ran it through a 4 inch white pipe under a blacktop walkway. I did not blow it out in fall because I had weeping hoses connected to it, did not crack.

To consider : how do you find out if an emitter under a big hosta is plugged? When the plant wilts?
Bernd

there is no guarantee that the 6 or 9 or 12 inch intervals will be near your plant's root zone. I'm probably going to have to look at different types of emitters.

===>> i am going to give you a duh on this one ..

you run the water.. until the space between the emitters is wet ... you discover said time ... by digging hole between emitters.. until you know the time..and with a given time.. and a given amount out each emitter ... you can predict how much water is actually used ... at the link above i gave you it said:

Techline EZ can be connected to a previously-installed 17mm Techline system and has the same dripper flow rates: 0.26, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.9 GPH.

so if you put down a line with 100 emitters ... with a rate of .4 gal/min ... well.. you do the math.. and understand.. unlike an overhead system.. 99% of it.. will go into mother earth..a s compared to 50% of it.. drifting away ...

and when you figure out.. how long it takes to go 6 inches [half the 12 inch space] ... get this.. you will also be watering SIX INCHES DOWN ... when it the last time.. you effectively watered to 6 inches deep??? and how often will you need to water.. if you can effectively put it into the middle of the root zone????

now cheap 'nure aside.. it only took me 2 years.. to figure out digging holes.. lol ... so double duh on me.. lol ...its all about your soil.. and how your soil drains.. you will NEVER get a direct answer.. until you try it ...

BTW.. you can use a couple fittings.. and simply make a hose fit to the end of the techline .. as a starting point.. you can always connect it to a supply line later ...

i truly do NOT know.. if the individual emitter thingees.. will work in ground freeze areas ...

you need only drain the supply line ... and at that.. only enough to allow enough expansion so it wont crack.. MOSTLY LIKELY ... a drain/spigot at a low point.. might get most of it out.. if your whole yard leaned on way ... but yes.. i did buy a compressor ...

the techline .. and tape.. drain themselves ... its only the supply line that needs encouragement ...

and you can NOT use quick connects.. as they reduce pressure too much ... one would think a half inch pipe would deliver more pressure than a one inch pipe, at distance ... but thought the pressure is higher.. the sidewall resistance is higher.. effectively reducing the pressure at the far end ... [i now that isnt proper engineering terms.. its the idea i am trying to get across]

try to find your mortgage map ... get it scanned.. enlarge it... make multiple copies .... and start drawing on your beds in general blobs .. and then use that.. to try to develop a supply route ....

also.. techline can be buried in mulch.. but the downside to that.. is you get no ambient humidity.. which on conifers.. i find requisite ... its ugly in winter .. but i recommend it be on top ... and it effectively disappears.. as the hosta emerge ...

ken

BTW.. you will need a handheld torch.. for ease of installation ... to warm the tube.. for easy insertion of connectors ... NBD ...

Here is a link that might be useful: connectors and such

A sale at dripworks going on now.

Here is a link that might be useful: dripworks

Steve, if you're talking about the 6-9-12" dripline on the Dripworks site, the way that works is that first you run mainline tubing through your bed. Then you use a punch tool to punch holes in the mainline and insert pieces of the dripline tubing at each plant. So the 6-9-12" drip intervals are only in the dripline tubing that you wind around each individual plant, not in the mainline that goes throughout the bed. That's the system that I'm going to order for my hosta beds, as well as my other beds with the exception of the beds that are on sloped areas. I'm going to have to call them to find out what to do on my sloped beds.

Deanna