Gardening For Freepers – PVC Drip Irrigation For The Home Garden

Self ^ | 3-9-09 | Red Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

I have been researching drip irrigation systems for use in my garden this year and came across this system using PVC pipe and I thought that this might be of interest to those Freepers into gardening or planning a garden.

This will be my third year of vegetable gardening and I decided that I would go with a drip irrigation system and this PVC system caught my eye and interested me because I can go to the local hardware store and get everything I need. You can see my garden from last year by going to my Home/About page.

There are plenty of commercial drip irrigation systems that are available in kits and individual parts to build your own but they are not available in my local garden centers. I would have to order over the Internet if I wanted one. If I cared about aesthetics around landscaping I would consider ordering over the Internet. I was on the verge of hitting an order button when I came across this homemade PVC system.

The thing that attracted me to using a drip irrigation system was that I would not have to furrow my rows. My garden is on a slope and the furrows have to be planned to keep water from pooling in the low ends of the furrows. Also furrowing is physical work and if I can innovate around it I will. My garden will be flat this year. Here is hoping my beer is not!

I would like any input from y’all with (or without) experience using a drip irrigation system for your gardens.

Here are a couple of links to information with pictures and a video showing how the PVC system works.

This is a pdf file from Utah State University

Designing a Basic PVC Home Garden Drip Irrigation System - pdf with pictures

This is a video (not the best quality) of how to make a PVC drip system. It is about 14 min. long.

Video - How To Make A PVC Irrigation System

[elpinta]

Well, I didn’t mention the usual ‘freeze’ warnings because you are in FL.
It will be so much easier for you than it has been for me in CO!

[jagusafr]

Now, to the substance: I think my wife and I may do the raised-bed-drip-irrigation thing this year - Texas, especially South Central Texas, is just heck on gardens in the summer, and I do love my romas and peppers...

Colonel, USAFR

[GatorGirl]

I was joshing you anyway! If I understood any of that I would think it was very nice too!! LOL~

[GatorGirl]

Yeah we froze four times this year! I sent a message voicing my displeasure to Al Gore. I was planning on global warming. Now I have had to cut back my dead hibiscus and allamanda!

[Travis T. OJustice]

I spent about $20 for materials to add a hose faucet to the side of my house closest to the garden. I did the work myself, and have all the tools, etc. handy. It’s not hard at all if you have a little experience sweating copper pipe together.

[Travis T. OJustice]

May I join your weekly garden ping?

[martin_fierro]

How crazy is this.

[LucyJo]

Please add me to your gardening ping list. Thank you.

[BenLurkin]

bookmark

[shotdog]

I like the flex hose as well. it needs to be mulched to protect from uv rays. my early basil is up, (indoor greenhouse) and I will plant a few tomato seeds next week for early harvest. Here in central n y winter came early last fall...10/27 was our first snow. We have pretty much hit the wall for tolerance.

[fanfan]

IMHO, you are better to take 5 or 10 gallon water jugs planted upside down in the garden. You can add food to them as well, and they are not nearly as much trouble as drip hoses.

Hard water, hills, distance to the garden all work against drip hoses.

I guess if you plan on harvesting, and canning tons of food, it might be worth it, but we just do some tomatoes, peppers, garlic, and zucchini, and I hate tripping over the hoses all the time.

[Travis T. OJustice]

I don’t know, but I am going to try one this year, why not? Similar things work very well for flowers like impatients.

I had a HUGE garden last year, and got hit with some personal stuff that killed my time in the garden, and it all went to crap. I was so bummed. The pumpkins and watermelon were fine, but anything that didn’t overtake everything else, like the tomaotes and basil, really suffered. I tilled everything under, and planted grass.

[martin_fierro]

If you have hard water they can be a nightmare, the emitters or lazerline clogs up.

OTOH I've heard (no personal experience here) that if you have a water softener, the chemicals in the water are no good for the plants.

[Red_Devil 232]

Hey I here you! I had a nice garden going last year up until August and then a little health problem hit me that lasted until the end Sepetember. My wife could not keep up with her work, the garden and me. The only things that survived were the hot pepper plants (jalapeno, Cayenne and Serrano).

[Travis T. OJustice]

Thanks for the fig newton & milk craving, by the way.

[mad_as_he$$]

dripdepot.com

[Gorzaloon]

Way back in the 80's I started using drip irrigators..they were the ones Burpee sold. I do not know if they still sell them, but I cannot say enough good about them. I had a regular plug-in light timer connected to a solenoid valve. I would work hard in Spring to set it up, then, using black mulch, I never did anything afterward but pick vegetables and eat them. As the season went on I had a very high density garden with embarassing surpluses of tomatoes, eggplant, squashes (winter and summer varieties) green beans, radishes, turnips, broccoli, sweet and hot peppers, and cucumbers. You can add an aspirator to the line and have it sip from a tank of Miracle Grow when it waters.

We had vegetarian friends who would come for the pool, and we would just open the garden gate and let them graze while we barbecued a steak, and everyone was happy.

[Red_Devil 232]

No hard water worries here. As for winter the PVC would be removed and stored for next season. Any clogs in the small holes of the PVC can be cleared by inserting a piece of wire.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I use a Kinetico softener that treats the “inside” water, it uses potassium instead of sodium salt, the plants like it just fine.

For the price of potassium, there’s no way I would use it on the outside plants.

[Red_Devil 232]

That is what I mentioned in the original post - there are plenty of commercial kits and parts available on the Internet.