Does this type of super simple mini irrigation timer exist?

11 years ago

Hello! I have a vertical garden that has eight 36" boxes full of flowers and herbs. These are on the same water line/timer as the other trees and plants in the rest of the yard. However, the vertical gardens require only 2-3 minutes of water 2x a day, while the rest of yard gets 20 or so. So I end up flooding my boxes or under watering the rest of the yard. :-/

What would be ideal is a super simple timer that I can splice directly into the 1/2" irrigation line at the base of my boxes so when the backyard water comes on that timer only releases water for 2-3 minutes to the boxes then shuts off. Does anything like this exist?

The irrigation timer that we currently have now does not have room for me add another station or else I'd just put them on their own schedule. It's a 4 four station timer.

More specific info: there is one main 1/2" line in the yard with connections of 1/4" line with drippers going to individual trees/plants in the yard. For the vertical garden, there is 1/2" connection coming off of the main 1/2" line. From there, I have sweat hose on 1/4" connections going to each box. So I'd like to put this super simple timer at the vertical garden 1/2" connection point.

If there are other suggestions, I'm all ears! Thank you!

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Comments (4)

joncongaroo
11 years ago
There are battery powered single station controllers. The type that screw directly onto a hose bib seem to be the least expensive. Fittings are available to plumb that type into your 1/2" line.

If you have hard water, 1/4" rubber sweat hose tends to plug up with mineral deposits quickly. I use 1 to 4 gph emitters into 1/4" tubing that has built-in emitters every 6" for containers.
SW Gardener
Original Author
11 years ago
Ok, cool! I was looking at some of those but couldn't figure out how to get it to splice into that 1/2" line. Do you happen to know that the fittings are called to make that splice happen?

Oh my gosh, we have seriously hard water and I was actually having a horrible time with drippers in the those boxes. They were constantly clogging and moving to the sweat line has been my saving grace for that portion of the yard.

Thank you so much for your help with this!
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joncongaroo
11 years ago
If you have the flexible black or brown 1/2" tubing, Home Depot (and others) sells DIG brand Q58 compression end cap (take the cap off and you have male hose threads) and DIG C34 female hose thread compression swivel adapter. You need one of each.

If you have rigid white PVC tubing there are fittings for that too.
SW Gardener
Original Author
11 years ago
Ok, gotcha, I see how this is all coming together now. Thank you so much for your help on this. I appreciate your insight!