What kind/type of irrigation do you use and why?

[CrazyAboutOrchids]

I had been using a sprinkler; it's a waste of water, overhead watering causes too many issues with plant health. I had used soaker hoses in the past, but they rot, difficult to tie in different raised beds. I drew up my garden, planned a drip-tape system using supplies from Dripworks. Very happy, best thing I did for my garden last year.

Here is my raised bed garden, it is 20 x 40, not cleaned up yet:


Here is the water coming into the garden. One line goes straight across the front of the garden, there are three lines coming off of that - one serves each side bed, one serves the raised beds in the middle:


Here is one line going over to a side bed:


Above, you can see the 't' for the line going to the raised beds. Here is how that line goes up and into each box.


Once it warms up here, new clamps will go on so the lines are neater, better attached to each box. I use two lines in most of the center boxes, but have 3 lines for the first large box, one for the small front box which is herbs. The side beds have one line each. With this set up, I can easily control the amount of water to each bed, each line, if I have different watering requirements for each area. I used easy-loc fittings for everything and bought end caps for the end of every line which was more expensive than the cheaper fold over fittings to end the lines, but this way I can flush any line I want.

I grow shallots and garlic in each of the long side beds, tomatoes will go in one long side bed behind the garlic, eggplant on each end. All sorts of squash will go in behind the garlic of the other long bed. When the squash and tomatoes get larger and need more space, the garlic is ready for harvest. after the tomatoes and squash get pulled at the end of the season, shallots and garlic go back in for the following year. The center beds have various lettuce on each end which I can grow all summer since the lettuce will get shaded by the plants in the rest of each bed as the season goes on and gets hotter. The rest of the boxes hold beets, broccoli, beans, carrots, cucumbers, etc. The small box in the front which is 1 x 6 is where I grow herbs. I was able to bottle 20 pints of beets from the 3/4 area of a 4x6 box last year. I feed our family of 5 with my garden and am able to share with neighbors.

I did not pull up the tape this past winter. Figured I would leave it down and see how long the tape lasts when left in place year round.

[sjoella]

BennB...you are pretty good to see in your head what you drew out...this is what I dont see I have a diagram of my garden here for you to look at a little more if you would like. I thank you for your input!
CrazyAboutOrchids...what you have in pics there is what I see in my head, I just am not experienced enough in drip/irrigation systems to know what I need to purchase or even consider to purchase. LOVE the pics!

All---Thank you for the information! I truly appreciate the information and ideas everyone has shared!

[Fat Charlie]

I run a soaker hose through my raised beds and have a drip system for the buckets. I bought a little starter drip set at Home Depot a few years ago, and went to Drip Depot last fall to get a bunch of pieces parts. This spring I needed a couple pieces (I had bought the wrong ones last fall) and checked out Amazon- the thing I needed was sold by Drip Depot. So rather than give Amazon a cut of what I was apparently going to be spending at DD anyway, I just bought from them directly. It's all on a hose timer and I love being able to enjoy the garden more than I work in it.

[joseph]

Out here in the desert we love sprinkle irrigation! It washes the dust off the plant leaves so that they can get enough sunlight to grow. And the low humidity means that sprinkling does not lead to the humidity related diseases that are common in other places.

Sprinkle irrigation drowns bugs. The metal pipes are durable. My grandmother is still using pipe that she bought about 40 years ago. It is an inexpensive way to water huge fields with minimal equipment. (The pipe to water my 2 acre field cost 20 ounces of silver.)

The water evaporating from the fields cools the surrounding neighborhood by about 15F, which lowers cooling costs, and the falling water from the sprinklers traps dust which promotes better health. It's not like the water that evaporates during sprinkling is lost... It travels up into the surrounding mountains and precipitates as dew or rain, and we reuse it over and over.

[Keger]

I use impact sprinklers on t posts. Works well for me.

[tomatoguy]

I have a soaker hose, underneath my raised bed. I only have to water 5-6 times, per season, sometimes less.

mater

[b54red]

For the past 3 years I have had soaker hoses in all of my beds but this year only in my bed with the large squash plants. I put mulch over my hoses so there was little lose of water and it was great until I started having hoses fail. By the end of the season last year I had to quit using most of my hoses because of big leaks. This year I am just going to mulch heavily and hand water. If that becomes too difficult I will just lay my working soaker hoses on top of my mulch. That way when one of them fails I will see it much sooner and not have to dig around under the mulch trying to find the leak.

[RebelRidin]

Originally Posted by b54red

For the past 3 years I have had soaker hoses in all of my beds but this year only in my bed with the large squash plants. I put mulch over my hoses so there was little lose of water and it was great until I started having hoses fail. By the end of the season last year I had to quit using most of my hoses because of big leaks. This year I am just going to mulch heavily and hand water. If that becomes too difficult I will just lay my working soaker hoses on top of my mulch. That way when one of them fails I will see it much sooner and not have to dig around under the mulch trying to find the leak.

I had the same experience with soakers when I used them some years back. These were those recycled rubber porous variety.

[clkingtx]

I started out the season by hand watering with a hose, and as I planted more, I would dig trenches to supply all the plants. When I was able, I bought a soaker hose and twined it through the garden, so most spots get watered adequately. I have a couple of dry spots, and a couple of spots that stay wet. It is working well for now. I am watering every couple of days, but we haven't even hit 100 degrees yet, so I expect that to go to daily after we do. I have a trench dug around the main garden, to catch the run off from the wet spots, and take it to the outlying plants. Each 75 foot hose cost 15.00, so for 30.00, I have quite a nice(and easy) watering system. Another reason for doing it this way, other than initial cost, was that we are in a drought right now, and are under severe water restrictions.

[dice]

I use old garden hoses of various lengths capped off on the end,
with holes poked in them with an ice pick near enough to each
plant that it gets watered if necessary. I weigh them down with
bricks and cover with mulch to keep the water more or less
soaking in and not spraying wildly in directions that are not
useful.

I turned them on for 10 minutes to check for leaks about
3 weeks ago. I have not needed them since. (We are in a rainy
weather pattern, with at least some rain every week.) Containers
I water by hand if it does not rain.

Cost: about $1.50 for hose end caps (I already had the old hoses.)

[z_willus_d]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

I just hooked up my old Hozon injector to the drip system in my new high tunnel, and it does not work at all. Apparently there is not enough water flowing through the system to create enough suction to make it siphon. It worked for me last year because I was attaching it to a drip system that covered about a 2-3 acre field.

I have an "EZ-Flow" injector that I'm going to try next to see if it makes any difference. I was not a fan of its design, but maybe I can make it work for a high tunnel.

Hi Cole_Robbie, I was thinking about grabbing one of the Hozon injectors for my setup. I run from the hose faucet through a hose to a converter to 1/2" or 3/4" PVC that makes a circuit around my raised beds. Every couple feet on the PVC is a riser with a sprayer head. Do you think the Hozon will work in that environment, or perhaps not enough pressure. Is the general idea that for every 16 units of water that are pulled from the house faucet, 1 unit will be pulled from the siphon bucket?
Thanks for helping.
-naysen

[dice]

On the old garden hoses, a few wraps of duct tape works to repair
excessively large holes (like when I put a spading fork through one
this year while turning over weeds).

Fungi Perfecti markets a brass hose-bib siphon injector with
a built-in check valve, but the description does not say what
minimum water pressure it needs to work:
http://www.fungi.com/product-detail/...hon-mixer.html

[z_willus_d]

Hi Dice, that looks just like the Hozon model. I think there is one standard design that multiple companies sell. They all seem to be about the same. I went ahead and purchased two from Amazon Marketplace (~$26.5 per). I figure I can return to Amazon if they don't work. I hope they do.
Thanks.
-naysen

[Cole_Robbie]

Sprayers shouldn't make the back pressure that drip tape does and should have higher flow. The low flow of drip doesn't make enough suction for the Hozon unless it's a very big garden.

[z_willus_d]

Cole_R- that's good to read. I think it will be a great time-saver and probably good for my plants to start watering with the feed, rather than have to do the feeding by hand. I'll be very happy indeed if these $25 siphons get the job done. One 5-gal bucket at each of my beds should do the trick.

Thanks,
Naysen