Drip Irrigation spotlight on Drip Applicators, Emitters, Bubblers, & Microsprays 

Thanks and you're welcome!

Awesome!!!! I love hearing that people are getting real world value out of this, it's what I'm here for!

Hope your garden turned out great!

Awesome, glad you liked it! There's a couple more videos here on RU-vid, but I also have a comprehensive course on Drip at www.proirrigationtraining.com/drip-irrigation-for-lawn-and-farm.html

Confidence is exactly right. Keep up the good work: you're doing a true service!

So glad to hear that!

Awesome, glad you got some value out of it!

Great, glad to hear it!

Be careful doing it this way. I'm not sure of the right term but if your feeder line is not at the right angle at the end, the water will run on the tubbing back to towards the main line. I know I'm not explaining it right but the water will not land on to the root ball of the plant. I used to attach the emitter before the feeder, but now that I actually maintain many of the plants I install I see the draw back of this method.

Glad you got some good, usable information from the video, Eric. Thanks for subscribing!

You're welcome! Hope the info helps.

Thank you, I appreciate that. This is part of an online course that has 18 video lectures. The course does have one lecture on the history of drip. And I do get slagged occasionally in reviews for teaching 6 minutes of history, lol.

No worries, keep doing what you are doing.

Yes thank you

@@rickstorm8948 1Q2aBfS8WhKyixzJrgmzjf1gr6RUgbNiYK q1q q1q 7.5

Thanks for watching, hope you got some good info out of it!

Thank you! I hope it helps you.

Absolutely right. I love the adjustability of the micro heads.

Thank you for the suggestion!

You're welcome, hope you got lots of good info.

Thanks I appreciate that.

Thank you for saying that!

You're welcome!

Glad you liked it! Don't forget that I have a full online video course about drip for only $30. Check the link above!

Hello, sorry for the slow reply. I don't think there's really a need to use bubblers instead of drip emitters. 2gph emitters are just fine. You can even use smaller emitters and just extend the run time. Just make sure to add up all the emitters to ensure your flow demand isn't too high. If you have many trees, you might exceed the flow ability of the solid tubing supply line, usually 4 or 5 g.p.minute for 17mm or 1/2" tubing. In that case, just install a larger supply line, like 3/4' or 1" PVC or Poly.

Thank you so much, hope you learned something useful!

Thank you, I appreciate it!

Jason, thanks for watching and best of luck with your garden.

How is it 1 year in?

@@kaneilsmith6799 Go with the 15 mil. It's great but the 8 mil stuff got some pin holes in it that I had to cut out and splice. No big deal really but the heavy duty stuff is the way to go. I absolutely love the drip tape though. Best thing to ever happen to row crop gardeners.

You're welcome. Hope you get some usable info from the preview clips.

You're welcome, thanks for watching.

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

Thank you!

Hunter, Rainbird, and Toro I think, all have versions of this. Landscape Products / Ewing Irrigation also makes a line of those. Any sprinkler supply online will have them. In the US, most of the larger hardware stores have them. They're very inexpensive as well!

Thank you!

Great, thanks for subscribing! I'll be dropping some new content starting now.

Hi Janet, sorry for the slow response. Here is a link to the free course for beginners. www.udemy.com/course/introduction-to-irrigation-and-sprinkler-systems/?kw=irriga&src=sac

I would use PVC under the pavers for sure. I doubt you'll exceed the capacity of 1/2" flexible tubing that you can run inside the PVC. For 1/2" polyethylene tubing, you can get 5 gallons per hour minimum. I would do it like this: Hose Bibb > Brass Y splitter > Rain Bird Battery Powered Timer > Bushing to convert from hose thread to pipe thread > Male thread x 1/2" barb fitting > 1/2" tubing out to the drip location. This video explains what to select at the drip location. Hope that helps you!

You're welcome, hope the information helps.

You sure can use a higher PSI pressure regulator if you think there's going to be a problem. If you're using a dripline product with the drippers built in, I doubt that you'd run out of Flow for this small project. You can check the manufacturer's printed guidelines for max feet of dripline per "run" or for each 1/2" supply point. If you're inserting drippers, add up the flow and don't exceed 6 gallons per MINUTE total. Remember that the drippers are gallons per HOUR, so make sure you total it up right. But for that small bed, you shouldn't even approach max Flow capacity of the 1/2" drip tubing. Good luck with your veggies!

That particular micro spray head is from Landscape Products, carried by Ewing Irrigation. Rain Bird and Hunter make 360 micro sprays, but the pattern may be a little different. I just happen to like the way this one spins. It does a great job.

The first concern is how the water will actually be delivered. Most drip products require a minimum of 8 or 10 psi to work. If the rain barrel was elevated 18 - 20', then you could make enough pressure. Or you could drill very small holes in PVC pipes for the delivery system for the rain water. Either way, it probably has to be kept separate unless you can find a way to pressurize the rain water with either a pump or elevation.

Thank you very much! Back to the drawing board it is! Haha! Thanks for the info - and the great video!

Yes, you can just double the tubing over and secure it with a bread-tie or something similar. If the pressure has been properly regulated, the fittings shouldn't leak at all. Thank you!

I appreciate that!

Hi Brandon. I actually did use a green screen.

In South Carolina, we dont do anything. It doesnt get cold enough to damage hardly anything. But if you use drip line without check valves in it, you can just uncap the end of each run of tubing and let the water run out. If you're using check valve dripline, you should use an air compressor to blow out all your lines and zones.

Yes you can easily plug the hole with a "goof plug." And those soaker hoses work well, you can mix and match any of those products for whatever plants you have. Just make sure you don't exceed the 4-5 gallons per minute that's usually the limit for 1/2" or 17mm tubing.

As far as the coyotes are concerned, you may try to cover the drip lines with enough mulch so that any critters cant see the lines or hear the slight noise the emitters make. Mulch also helps hold down any evaporation. Other than that, you could look into a Rain Bird RWS Root Watering System. It's buried in the ground and irrigates directly into the root zone. As far as the PVC supply pipe, you will need to add up the gallons per minute for all the sections of drip that you want to put onto a single supply pipe. First, you can't exceed the gpm of the supply source, your pump or water meter. Then look up the friction loss chart for Sched 40 PVC pipe and see which size pipe will flow that much water. I once installed a system for a blueberry farm that was several acres. We had to use 2" pipes to deliver water to all the sections of drip that we wanted to put on each zone. If your farm is large, you may have to use several zones and valves to cover it all.

Kim Newton ..you must use 3/4 in line to 1/2 pvc. Then tube

Ferg, she didn't say how many trees or shrubs or the flow that was needed. If there were many trees down a line, you may want to be careful about using 3/4" and 1/2" pipes. Schd 40 - 1/2" will only flow 4 gpm without getting into excessively high velocity, and Schd 40 - 3/4" only 7 gpm. Supply pipes should be sized according to how much flow you need.

To be honest, there's a lot of variables in your question that i can't begin to answer here. Netafim has an amazing support program for farmers. Go to the Netafim USA website and there's a place to contact them and they can give you precise recommendations for your particular crop.

Hi Sheri. Let's talk about the dripper size. The 1 gallon dripper means one gallon through that dripper in one one hour of run time. So, If you need a full gallon in that pot, then use a 1 gph dripper and run that zone for one hour. If you only want a half gallon in that pot per watering event, then you could use that 1 gph dripper and only run the system for half an hour. (or a 2gph dripper with 15 minutes of run time.) I also like microsprays because they have a variable shut off knob that you can trip down the spray if you need less water.

Spot-spitters, I like that! Never heard that before! But yes they will work fine. It's best not to have full pressure anyway, it will blow the fittings apart. I don't think the drip manifolds have pressure reduction in them, so it's best to use a pressure reducer and filter on any drip system.

@@Proirrigationtraining thanks!

Luke, so sorry that I'm just now being shown this comment. Microsprays are good in this situation as you can can trim down the spray as needed. Pretty much every one I've ever seen has a flow control dial on the nozzle that will reduce the distance it throws water. As far as drippers are concerned, the water does spread out as it soaks downward from the surface. The more dense the soil, the more it spreads, but even sand gets some spread. I've used drip on my hydrangeas and it worked fine, but we have heavy clay soil.

I personally like using dripline with emitters molded into the tubing. Make a loop about 75% of the way out to the edge of the canopy. You can connect all the loops with solid tubing. There's something similar in some of the practical videos in the drip playlist.

Hi Katie. I bet the tubing you have is actually "flex pipe" or the thicker walled tubing meant to connect heads and so forth. What you want is the thinner walled drip tubing. It makes all the difference in the world!

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

No clamps are necessary. The emitters have barbed inserts, but you should keep the pressure under 40 psi, preferably at 30 or 35 psi.

That's a good question. I know of formulas for converting large areas into acre/inches, but a single drip emitter? I'll have to do some research to figure this one out.

Well, most drip products need an 8 or 10 psi minimum to work. If using 1/2" drip tubing, you have a limit of 4 or 5 gpm. which gives a psi loss of 6 - 7 psi per 100'. Also some loss through any supply piping and valves, elbows, etc. will probably bring you up to 20 psi. And we get .433 psi for each foot of elevation rise, so 46.18 feet of elevation.

I do have plans to add that to the drip course soon. Thank you!

Hi Jodi, thanks for watching! If there is dripping truly all day, 24 hrs, then the valve is probably leaking a little. If it only drips for a couple hours after running, then it's just draining. You can get dripline with check valves molded in the tubing, or you can get little check valves to insert in the line to mitigate the problem. amzn.to/3oBx1o2

@@Proirrigationtraining Thank you so much for the response! I have not buttoned everything up completely yet. I was waiting to see if there were any problems before I closed it all up. Do you have a test I could run to see if it is in fact the valves leaking? I can replace the valves if it is.

Yes sir, I did. It's tough to keep it all straight for a video like that. I'm sure you noticed the text on the screen with the correction to gph.

Hi Kevin, I think the minimum pressure that you would have to generate would be 12 - 14 psi. Most drip-tape products and drip emitters require a minimum of 8 - 10 psi to push through the emitter, and a little extra to account for friction loss through the fittings and pipe. Each foot of elevation rise will get you .433 psi, to get 14 psi at the head of the system, you would need 32.3 ft of vertical rise. That doesn't mean that the barrels need to be straight up vertical. If you have a hill, you could use the slope to accomplish the elevation drop.

Thanks for the info . I have 2- 55 gal . up 4 ft high , with a slope Not sure how to get measurements on the slope ? Any info would be great .. thanks again :)

The best way I know of is to use a laser level and a stick of pipe. Remember that what matters is the straight vertical elevation rise. Place the laser level on the ground up the slope. Walk down the slope with the stick of pipe. Hold the pipe vertical with end on the ground. Move it around until you see the laser line on the pipe. Mark and measure that point and you've got the vertical elevation rise between the place where the pipe touched and the laser level. You can repeat the process for a long slope. Again, you're going to need at least 32' of vertical rise. If you can't achieve that much elevation, you can drill small holes in PVC pipe and use that as your drip delivery system. That's far from perfect, a last resort if you can't generate enough pressure to use drip products.

The question relates to how much water flow you have available. If you have enough pressure to push the water, and are using 1/2" delivery tubing, ( supplying 4 gallons per minute) you could theoretically use 480 of the .5 gallons per minute drippers. The problem with rain barrels though is that you don't really get enough pressure to push that much water. You could attach a small pump to the line to bring up the pressure enough to push 4 gpm. If you're using 1/4" delivery tubing (17 gph) then you could use 34 of the .5 gph drippers.

Hi Gerry, there's a couple ways to do this. The best way is to add a new zone by installing a new valve. That way you can control your drip independently of other zones and dial the watering times in to each need. That gets a little technical and you would need to wire the new zone back to the timer assuming that its an automatic system. Good installers will include an extra wire or two in the bundle when installing for future expansion. If not, you would have to run a new hot wire ( you can use the existing common wire, assuming you're adding the new valve near existing valves.) There's another, easier way. you can use an existing zone if there's enough available flow to supply the existing heads plus the drip you want to add. if there's a head you can eliminate, you can use the Rain Bird 1800 Retrofit Kit to make a new drip supply point. It has a pressure regulating filter, and It also has a 1/2" inlet, but if you already have Rain Bird 1800 Sprays, you can just replace the guts of the spray body. Be sure to figure out the flow requirement of the drip you want to add so you can make sure that you're not over-demanding the zone and decrease the performance of the heads already on the zone.

Hi Dolly, I'm so sorry that a reply didn't get posted at the time, I thought I did. The solution is to use a solid drip tubing, then you can tailor the drippers to your needs. Small plant with small water need, use a .5 gallon per hour dripper. For a larger plant, you could use a 2 gph dripper or multiple drippers. For a larger area that drippers may not work the best, you can use a micro spray to provide better or more even coverage. For this strategy to work, the soil needs to be fairly porous and have good drainage, otherwise the water just spreads out sub-surface and the differences in each dripper won't make much difference.

@@Proirrigationtraining Thank you so much. Better late than never. I forgot to mention that this bed is on an incline. Does this affect your recommendations?

@@dollyperry3020 It shouldnt affect much unless the incline is drastic. If the water is flowing downhill, it will pick up .433 psi per one foot of vertical elevation drop. if the water flows uphill, it will lose .433 for each foot of vertical rise.

Yes, there can be a slight difference in the sizes. Typically, the black tube is 1/2" and the brown tubing is 17mm, which is a difference on the interior diameter of a mm or two. Rainbird's Multi-Diameter Compression Coupling will take care of that. www.lowes.com/pd/Rain-Bird-1-2-in-Plastic-Drip-irrigation-coupling/1002293686

@@Proirrigationtraining thanks i ended up heating up the tube a pushing a coupling in lol

Rain Bird makes that one. www.rainbird.com/products/14-self-piercing-barb-connector

I'm not terribly knowledgeable about trees, but I'm thinking that Live Oaks get pretty large. The size and age would determine where to position a ring of drip line around it. A new planting would need a dripline pretty close in, but a larger established tree would need to be watered further out towards the edge of the canopy where smaller roots are. Closer in to established trees, the roots are thicker and take in less water.

>>Also, I see a need for a coupling for PVC pipe with a 1/4 inch barb so drip tubing can be installed from the PVC pipe header...

@@Ted_Michaels There are various Tees available, but I'm not sure if there are any like you're describing. I'll look though, there are a lot of new products and manufacturers of drip. As for the second comment, there are fittings with 1/2" and 3/4" female inlets that have 1-6 drip barbs. They're quite handy for adapting pipe to drip. Be careful though, drip products should have a filter beforehand and also be pressure reduced down to 35 psi or so.

@@Proirrigationtraining Many thanks for your response. A "t" like I described would be fantastic. Also, thank you for your words of caution regarding drip - reduce down to 35 psi and have a filter - this is helpful.

You sure can, but you have to make sure that whatever you're going to supply doesn't exceed the flow capability of the drip line and the drippers that it's already supplying. If you're just going to put a couple drippers, for a potted plant or something like that, it's probably not an issue, but if you're going to water another whole bed or garden area, you may want to consider tapping into the main line just so you know you'll have enough water available. Of course don't exceed the flow capability of the pipe you're tapping into, either.

You sure can. That's one of the great things about drip, is it's ability for endless customization.

As long as the total flow doesn't exceed the amount the supply pipe or drip tubing can deliver. Most drip tubing has a flow rate of 4 or 5 gallons per minute. Add up all the drippers on the tubing run and see if you have enough left over for a spray. Check the flow rate for the nozzle that either comes with or you purchase seperately to put on the spray.

yeah, sure enough. My bad, it's tough to keep everything straight on those long videos. So I'm I'm trying to do shorter vids now.

Hi John, sorry for the late response. But yes you can use 360 emitters. Really its what you need to directly water the plants or just the roots, depending on the location of the drip tubing. The 360 emitters work great, though.

Hi Robert, there could be a couple things going on. Is there any downhill run to the drip lines? Maybe there's enough water in the pipe after the valve shuts off that it's continuing to push water out the emitters. Or the valve isn't fully closing (which is usually the culprit). Disassemble the valve and flush it out. It's also possible that the timer is malfunctioning and sending voltage to the valve 24/7. Get a voltmeter and check the wire junctions.

@@Proirrigationtraining Thanks so much, as it was the valve needing replacement. It works perfectly now.

You can get a little plug, called a "goof plug" that you can cut the tubing and push in. If you think you may need that dripper again, you can just double the tubing over and put a zip tie on it to pinch off the flow.

Good question. I've never seen it explicitly said that there is a certain direction of flow. I think it is implied by the construction of the emitter. The sharper barb is considered a self piercing barb for insertion into the delivery tubing. The other outlet that's rounded off is considered the outlet. So I would always stick to that.

Hi Mary, here is one that you can buy from DripWorks: Purple Handle Punch - www.dripworks.com/purple-handle-punch?ref=dJkigxYO

Hey Arthur, if it's working out for you, roll with it! Yes, the drippers do restrict the flow to a measured, matched rate. But if the faster flood works in your garden, then just watch the run time so you don't over-do it. Remember, over-watering can look a lot like under-watering in the plant itself, so check the wetness of the soil and adjust according to the plants you have. There's a lot of plants that can't stand to have wet, soggy roots, and other plants love it.

Usually 8 to 10 psi minimum to make the drip products work.

Spencer Godspeed If you have good loose soil you could use 2gph drippers at each plant and start out with 15 or 20 minutes run time and increase it as the plants get bigger. Always check the soil with your finger to make sure it isn’t staying too wet. It can be easy to overdo it with drip because you don’t really see how much water is going into the soil. But really, any size drippers would work, and just adjust the runtime to give the amount of water you need at each plant. 1 gallon per hour would obviously give you one gallon for an hour of run time. So start on the low side of run times and adjust it up as it gets hotter and the plants get bigger. But always check the moisture of the soil. I like the probe style moisture meters that are about $20. They work pretty good.

@@michaelhaynes736 I checked out the moisture meters and they're pretty cool. Gonna get one off of Amazon. If I understand correctly, your plants should get about 2 inches of water a week which, if my math is correct, means watering them about 20 minutes a day with a 1 GPH emitter, do you think this sounds about right?

Spencer Godspeed That’s a good place to start. Just make sure that the soil doesn’t stay completely saturated. Sometimes an every day regimen can be too much and cause root rot. It just depends on the soil quality. The roots generally like to be damp but not soaked all the time.

Yes some plants don't like overhead watering, such as older cultivars of roses. It's best to use drip. Covering the drip line with a heavy layer of mulch will help with animals, but they can hear the high pitched squeal that the emitters make. You can actually bury the dripline in the soil, but use a check valve product with some kind of root intrusion blocker, either copper, trifluralin, or treflan.

Yes absolutely. I've done that many times.

@@Proirrigationtraining Thanks!

To be honest, I don't know. Primarily I deal with residential and commercial irrigation systems.

@@Proirrigationtraining okay, thank for the reply