Ideally with drip systems you either a) create different watering zones in the bed and layout the plants accordingly, or b) don't mix plants with differing water needs in the same bed.

For future reference your planting layout has to take into consideration the different water AND nutrient needs of the plants (for example the very different nutrient needs of spinach vs. oregano vs. tomato plants).

But that isn't possible to do if you have already planted so now about all you can do is either clamp off various lines as needed (they make plugs and folding end caps for that purpose) when watering OR use the system to water to the lowest demanding plant needs and then spot water by hand the high demand plants as needed.

I know that approach - providing minimal water through the system - sort of defeats part of the reason for having a drip system in the first place but given the very different water needs it is the easiest solution to the problem.

Dave

Thank you very much. This is my first year ever gardening and I did my best planning online, but am learning every day where i made mistakes :) Do you have any resources you would reccommend for planning what crops to plant and where for drip irrigation in raised beds?

You can also add in extra water emitters for higher-water needs plants. I have a limited number of zones I can break my beds into, so simply changing out one type of emitter for another works fairly well. For example, instead of using the drip lines for your squash and tomatoes, run a regular (non-emitter) line directly to the base of the higher water use plants with a larger emitter on the end (1-, 2-, 4-gallon per hour, depending on how often/long you have your system set to run).

All of my beds have one large half inch hose running the length of the bed, which I then adjust by adding groups of in-line emitters (for things like spinach or lettuce, carrots, etc), or separate 1/4" tubes with drips or sprayers at the end (for the larger plants, usually one line to each plant), depending on what I'm planting each season. I also have shutoffs on each bed, so my plants that don't like as much water, I can just shut irrigation off for awhile separate from the whole system.

I'm not aware of a lot of resources on "how to" this irrigation stuff, outside of learning the general water/space requirements for plants and planting them as "like" groups as much as possible. Unfortunately a lot of "how much and for how long" relies on your personal climate and soil type, so there's going to be a lot of experimentation and learning how best to work things for your situation.

It's definitely a little steeper learning curve than just letting the rain take care of it most of the time!

Good points Humsi. One thing that struck me was OP’s comment that the drip line with emitters is only 1/4” diameter. Most all driptape I’m familiar with is 1/2” diameter. I have 1/4” lines that can be spliced with T’s , elbows and emitters but never with manufactured built in emitters.

I’ve purchased many 4000’ rolls of driptape and can’t say that one works better for me with various crops. I’m using the last of one roll with 8” emitter spacing and starting a new one with 12” emitter spacing. Soil type might have more to do with choice. But I always put 2 lines per row of cucumbers and even though I plant over an acre of pumpkins and squash I never used any form of irrigation for those crops.

Barrie, you can purchase 1/4" tube that has emitters embedded in it every so often (I prefer the 6" distance ones, but they're hard to find, usually the emitters are 12" apart), which you attach to a 1/2" hose just like you would the tape. It's actually just like the 1/4" drip tubes, but with emitters embedded, and not tape. You can do all the T joints, elbows and such with it so you can turn it into little grids or circles or whatever your heart desires, which makes it a little more flexible for different uses, but I think they tend to clog more and you have to be more careful with your water pressure than with the tape.