Drip Irrigation System

[Toiyabe]

A drip system does take continual maintenance, but it's not hard. I walk my lines every week to make sure everything is flowing. Out of about 200 emitters I have to clean out about 5 a week and replace about 1. I prefer individual emitters on 1/4" line for that reason as they are easier to remove and clean or replace. I only use T-tape in the veggie garden and that is cheap enough to toss once the built-in emitters start to plug. I sometimes have problems with critters chewing through the lines to get a drink. I just cut the line with a knife where there's a leak and re-connect with a barb coupler. The maintenance takes about 10 minutes a week, and maybe 4 hours in the spring after it's been shut off for the winter.

I do use a filter, but have lots of minerals in my water which is what plugs the emmitters. I can often clean out an emitter by running water through it backwards while poking a wire gently into the inlet side.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Plastic is plastic is plastic to me. The pipe I have is described as PVC (PolyVinylChloride is apparently the stuff it is made from) is brown and has built in emitters at one metre spacings. Everything is metric in Europe apart from 2 things. Metal pipe is measured in inches and heat output of radiators etc is still measured in BTUs, although not one in a thousand knows what a BTU is.

It has been trouble free so far, apart from one of the farm cats chewing on it over last winter, but as already posted, is simple to fix. I too roll it up for the winter - numbering the outlets and rolls of tubing!!!!

The trees are Negrinha do Freixo (mainly a table olive but also crushed) and Cobrançosa, purely for oil. They will begin cropping next year, but we also have an old grove in production. We sell the olives apart from keeping a few for the table. We only use about 3 litres of oil a year, preferring roasts andf grilled steak.

Sorry for continuing the hijacking, but I am just answering the question put.

Old McDonald.

 

[flusher]

We are in a heck of a drought here in Georgia so I am putting a drip irrigation system in for my vegetable garden. The components of the system are from www.rainbird.com and include two control valves, filters, fittings and 700’ of ½” drip line with built in emitters every 18”. Each of my 14 crop rows will have a drip line that runs its 40+’ from a manifold. Each line will be able to disconnect from the manifold to roll up in the winter so the garden may be worked with the tractor.





MarkV

You need to bury the white PVC pipe since it turns brittle from the Sun's ultraviolet.

I use 1" PVC pipe and 1/2" risers teed into the pipe. Rainbird has nice $4.00 T-shaped couplings between the riser and 1/2" flexible black poly tubing (part #R334C). I lay the poly pipe perpendicular to the crop rows and string 1/4" emitter tubing along the rows. The emitter tubing is "Duraflo Jr 1/4" Dripperline" made by Agrifim (Fresno, CA) and has 1/2 gph emitters every 6" along the run.

See
NDS,Inc.

The entire system works off a 1" solenoid valve that's wired into my 16-station Rainbird sprinkler timer that controls all my landscaping sprinklers and driplines. The valve is in the valve box (green lid).

 

[andrewj]

Plastic is plastic is plastic to me. The pipe I have is described as PVC (PolyVinylChloride is apparently the stuff it is made from) is brown and has built in emitters at one metre spacings. Everything is metric in Europe apart from 2 things. Metal pipe is measured in inches and heat output of radiators etc is still measured in BTUs, although not one in a thousand knows what a BTU is.

It has been trouble free so far, apart from one of the farm cats chewing on it over last winter, but as already posted, is simple to fix. I too roll it up for the winter - numbering the outlets and rolls of tubing!!!!

The trees are Negrinha do Freixo (mainly a table olive but also crushed) and Cobrançosa, purely for oil. They will begin cropping next year, but we also have an old grove in production. We sell the olives apart from keeping a few for the table. We only use about 3 litres of oil a year, preferring roasts andf grilled steak.

Sorry for continuing the hijacking, but I am just answering the question put.

Old McDonald.

a british thermal unit? one in a thousand? maybe one in ten here does NOT know what it is.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Andrewj, Is your second name Jameson by any chance?

I was not trying to be a SmartArse/SmartAlec/SmartAndrew in saying that less than one in a thousand in Europe would know what a BTU is. I was merely saying that I found it surprising to be in general use, because I would have expected Europe to have some calorific measurement instead.

It is a great shame we are not in a position to make a very large bet about your claim that less than one in ten would NOT know what a BTU is. I would be prepared to offer you very good odds that you are wrong even about that number of people knowing that BTU means British Thermal Unit. Knowing what a BTU actually is, is as you USAers would say, a very different ball game. It would be amusing to have people post an honest reply that they know or do not know, BEFORE checking on the net or elsewhere what a BTU is a measurement of. Old McDonald.

 

[MarkV]

Hi everyone, hope those of you in the states had a nice holiday weekend and took a moment to thank a veteran. I appreciate the suggestions and hearing about other systems.

Just to be clear on a few points the irrigation tubing I have has the emitters built into the tubing. You do not use the ¼” emitter lines like you do on some systems. Regular white PVC is what is recommended for the “manifold” or header or whatever you want to call it. It is the distribution point that all the emitter lines run off of. Barb fittings or compression fittings are available to use with the irrigation line I am running. The reason I am thinking of the hose quick connects is that I am told the barb fitting will not pull out and or go back in easily. I am familiar with the flexible black PVC but I have never worked with it. I’ll look into what types of fittings are available.

I am still interested in information about UV protection for PVC. Been told that painting it will help keep it from getting brittle. Burying it does not work with the plan I have.

Thanks, keep the suggestions coming.

MarkV

 

[Toiyabe]

I think the polyethelene tube is not rated for continuous pressure. I.E. it probably shouldn't be used before the valves.

On my system, I have a 10' flexible high pressure hose running from the sillcock at the house to a Y-filter (rated for continuous pressure, not all are). The filter is directly connected to a brass 4-way manifold with built-in manual valves. The pressure regulators are attached to the outputs of the manifold. Then I have short flexible hoses to drop down to the ground, to which the poly mainlines plug in.

Since I don't have automatic valves, it's very nice to keep everything centralized. Since everything upstream of the valves should be "real plumbing" (high reliability, small leaks not tolerated) that also minimizes the amount of real plumbing I have to do.

So, one solution to your problem is to make your manifold smaller and then run two separate lines out to the garden. The smaller manifold can then be brass like mine, or PVC and shaded from the sun.

Are you sure that you need two zones? Are you going to be watering on different schedules for different parts of your garden? If not, you don't really need a manifold anyway.

 

[deereman64]

In the interests of saving the planet in my flower bed. I tried installing a drip system from HF this weekend. Hopeless.. the only water flow was thru the first three drips. Most of the others came apart in my hands when I tried to adjust them.10 bucks doesnt do it.

 

[OldMcDonald]

MarkV, I am sorry my knowledge of exactly what type of plastic you have and is in general use this side of the pond for drip irrigation (millions of acres of grapes, olives and other crops) is not sufficient to help you much, but no-one here bothers about any solar protection for their tubes. So far as I can gather, all systems are pretty much the same. A pump (mine is 3-phase, 10hp) into a main line, then a good filter leading to a smaller main with a pressure regulator before the drip lines. All drip lines appear to be flexible. I will try to get some technical info on the tubing and let you know. If I do not respond further by the end of the week then I have drawn a blank. Old McDonald.

 

[Kendall69]

Take a look at this stuff
http://www.dripworksusa.com/ttape1.html

Also soem Mexicans that work for me just lay our the PVC ABOVE GROUND and drill holes wherever they want the wayer to drip. Sounds nuts, but has worked for the last 7 years, in the blazing Desert sun of 120 plus degrees,without a problem.