Drip Irrigation

[DamnYankee]

I've been gardening my entire life and had great success until moving South. When I lived in Upstate NY I grew on 3000 square feet with up to 40 tomato plants and grew all my own vegetables, canning and freezing for the winter. I've always used an oscillating sprinkler and rarely had a problem keeping my plants productive.

North Carolina has been a different story altogether. The soil doesn't hold water very well and I've tried several different schemes, from twice/ day hand watering to stationary sprayers on a timer. I've spent a lot more time and effort watering and have never achieved the yields that I've enjoyed up north. Then leave for a week's vacation and come back to disaster.

After a brutally hot dry summer watching my vegetable garden suffer and peter out during what should be peak harvesting season I finally took matters in a new direction and installed a drip irrigation system. It wasn't cheap but man is it effective, and with the savings on water will eventually pay for itself (not counting more fresh food on my table).

The system uses 1/2" poly tubing with press-fit connectors for the main supply, then 1/4" tubing to supply individual plants. You run a 1/2" main down one side of the garden then tee off with 1/2" leaders down each row. Drill a small hole in the side of the 1/2" tube with a $4 hand tool and insert a 1/4" barb, then 1/4" tubing to each plant. At the end of the 1/4" tube you plug in a 1 gallon/ hour dripper. Or you can insert the dripper directly into the 1/2" tube.

The drippers are pressure compensated and drip at the same rate as long as the pressure is within 10-60 psi. So you don't have to worry about pressure loss in long runs of 1/2" tube. You can also buy 2 gph drippers and 1/4" drip line that feeds 1 gph per foot. The drippers come in bags of 10 for under $6. 100' of 1/2 tubing is less than $15 and the fittings are about $2 each. Connection to a garden spigot is with a vacuum breaker ($5) and a pressure reducer (optional, $8).

I've got mine rigged with an electronic timer ($30) that uses two AAA batteries and runs up to 16 watering events. After letting it run for 12 hours to saturate the plants I've set it for 15 minutes at 8am, then 30 minutes at noon, then 15 minutes at 4pm. I have 1gph drippers at each pepper plant, 2gph at each tomato and squash plant. That equates to 1 gallon per day for the pepper plants and two gallons per day for the other stuff. I also have 20' of drip line running through my bush beans and swiss chard.

After one week my peppers have grown 6" taller and the tomatoes 8" to a foot. I've got a ton of new foliage and everything is starting to flower again.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

I've been gardening my entire life and had great success until moving South. When I lived in Upstate NY I grew on 3000 square feet with up to 40 tomato plants and grew all my own vegetables, canning and freezing for the winter. I've always used an oscillating sprinkler and rarely had a problem keeping my plants productive.

North Carolina has been a different story altogether. The soil doesn't hold water very well and I've tried several different schemes, from twice/ day hand watering to stationary sprayers on a timer. I've spent a lot more time and effort watering and have never achieved the yields that I've enjoyed up north. Then leave for a week's vacation and come back to disaster.

After a brutally hot dry summer watching my vegetable garden suffer and peter out during what should be peak harvesting season I finally took matters in a new direction and installed a drip irrigation system. It wasn't cheap but man is it effective, and with the savings on water will eventually pay for itself (not counting more fresh food on my table).

The system uses 1/2" poly tubing with press-fit connectors for the main supply, then 1/4" tubing to supply individual plants. You run a 1/2" main down one side of the garden then tee off with 1/2" leaders down each row. Drill a small hole in the side of the 1/2" tube with a $4 hand tool and insert a 1/4" barb, then 1/4" tubing to each plant. At the end of the 1/4" tube you plug in a 1 gallon/ hour dripper. Or you can insert the dripper directly into the 1/2" tube.

The drippers are pressure compensated and drip at the same rate as long as the pressure is within 10-60 psi. So you don't have to worry about pressure loss in long runs of 1/2" tube. You can also buy 2 gph drippers and 1/4" drip line that feeds 1 gph per foot. The drippers come in bags of 10 for under $6. 100' of 1/2 tubing is less than $15 and the fittings are about $2 each. Connection to a garden spigot is with a vacuum breaker ($5) and a pressure reducer (optional, $8).

I've got mine rigged with an electronic timer ($30) that uses two AAA batteries and runs up to 16 watering events. After letting it run for 12 hours to saturate the plants I've set it for 15 minutes at 8am, then 30 minutes at noon, then 15 minutes at 4pm. I have 1gph drippers at each pepper plant, 2gph at each tomato and squash plant. That equates to 1 gallon per day for the pepper plants and two gallons per day for the other stuff. I also have 20' of drip line running through my bush beans and swiss chard.

After one week my peppers have grown 6" taller and the tomatoes 8" to a foot. I've got a ton of new foliage and everything is starting to flower again.

Yea the soil conditions suck for gardening. You either have to much clay which is impermiable to water or the soil is to sandy and the water just perculates away. Try adding about a 2" layer of vermiculite and about the same amount of either peat moss or composte to the surface of your garden and turn it into the soil at the beginning of the season. Combined with your drip system and the appropriate ammount of fertilizer I bet you'll see dramatic results. If you decide to try Vermiculite don't purchase it from any big box store like Walmart or Home Depot. If they have it at all it will only be in small bags. I'd buy it from an indusrial supplier like JP Austin or Lab Safety Supply in 4 cu ft bags or you might be able to order it in these quantities from your local greenhouse and should only cost around $25 - $28/ 4 cu. ft. bag.

 

[DamnYankee]

Yea the soil conditions suck for gardening. You either have to much clay which is impermiable to water or the soil is to sandy and the water just perculates away. Try adding about a 2" layer of vermiculite and about the same amount of either peat moss or composte to the surface of your garden and turn it into the soil at the beginning of the season. Combined with your drip system and the appropriate ammount of fertilizer I bet you'll see dramatic results. If you decide to try Vermiculite don't purchase it from any big box store like Walmart or Home Depot. If they have it at all it will only be in small bags. I'd buy it from an indusrial supplier like JP Austin or Lab Safety Supply in 4 cu ft bags or you might be able to order it in these quantities from your local greenhouse and should only cost around $25 - $28/ 4 cu. ft. bag.

I've never had to resort to vermiculite. I learned to garden from my grandfather and he used to haul, literally, tons of bagged leaves lifted off the curb from the suburbs to his garden 45 minutes away. Mix in a little bit of honey from the cess pool and he grew squash big enough to club a man with. He turned me into a master composter. I've even composted feather pillows and lobster shells.

I've been gardening on this same 10' x 20' patch for 14 years now and turned it from "red dirt" which is residual, medium plastic silt to a good, well drained mixture of silt and organics that only cracks after an extended drought. Every year I add grass clippings, leaves, 10-10-10 and lime, and till it all in. So soil tilth and water retention wasn't the issue. It's just too damn hot and dry.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

I've never had to resort to vermiculite. I learned to garden from my grandfather and he used to haul, literally, tons of bagged leaves lifted off the curb from the suburbs to his garden 45 minutes away. Mix in a little bit of honey from the cess pool and he grew squash big enough to club a man with. He turned me into a master composter. I've even composted feather pillows and lobster shells.

I've been gardening on this same 10' x 20' patch for 14 years now and turned it from "red dirt" which is residual, medium plastic silt to a good, well drained mixture of silt and organics that only cracks after an extended drought. Every year I add grass clippings, leaves, 10-10-10 and lime, and till it all in. So soil tilth and water retention wasn't the issue. It's just too damn hot and dry.

I take it that the extended draught is still going on down there?

 

[DamnYankee]

I take it that the extended draught is still going on down there?

Beer doesn't flow from the sky here Moot, no. We had a wet spring but the summer has been dry. As is typical of The South, when rain comes it's typically intense and short- not great for irrigation.