5 Reasons You Need Drip Irrigation - Western Garden Centers

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If you’re anything like me, you find gardening so rewarding—the planting, nurturing, and harvesting is such an amazing process. Eating something you grew, sharing it with friends and neighbors…it’s such an awesome feeling! And then it happens.  You get you get your water bill in the mail and all those awesome feelings are gone! Ugh!

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The first year we purchased our home, we had an amazing garden! I loved being able to see the progress and use the different vegetables in our family meals. We had an awesome crop of watermelons, which require quite a bit of water, and by the second month we had a water bill of over $200! I began comparing the purchasing of 6 or 7 watermelons from the store to my $200  water bill and I was second guessing my desire for a garden the next year!

If you are not using drip irrigation in your garden, then this is the time to start!  I’ve got five reasons you need to invest in drip irrigation, and once you have it installed, you will see the benefits from day ONE, I promise!

5 Reasons You Need Drip Irrigation

1. Water Efficiency

Drip irrigation will deliver water directly to the root zone of a plant. The water will seep slowly into the soil one drop at a time. You will see that almost no water is lost from evaporation or through water running off into other directions, rather than the plant you are actually trying to nourish. Some studies show that using a drip irrigation system can save anywhere from 30%-70% water compared to other methods of watering, like sprinklers. Being able to conserve water in Utah is a must, almost every year we hear about the drought we’re living through!

2. Reduce Costs

No one wants to have a water bill of $200—it’s just way too much to pay each month! Because yards, gardens, and drip irrigation systems are all so different, it’s hard to calculate how much a person will save on their own water bill. The studies say that, on average, a person will use about 50% less water, and depending on different features and how efficiently the drip system is planned and set up, it can save up to 70%. Once you have your drip irrigation installed, compare your bill to the year before.  You could save anywhere from 50%-70% on that part of your bill!!

3. Save Time

Life is so fast-paced, and we all wish we could have more time.  Well, having a drip irrigation system can do that for you! Drip systems can eliminate the need to drag around hoses and sprinklers, set timers, and make sure you remember to rotate and then shut them off when the rotation is all done (I am definitely guilty of forgetting to shut them off!).  If you opt for a system that uses a timer, you will only need to take a few seconds to turn the system on, and that system will shut off automatically for you when it is all done. Even if you don’t want to invest in a timer, you will really only need to turn it on once and remember to shut it off anywhere from 5-10 minutes later. So much easier than rotating sprinklers!

4. Healthier Plants = An Increase in Crops

Who doesn’t want to get the most they can out of their garden? Wouldn’t you love a steady flow of harvest throughout the summer and into early fall? Drip irrigation can help with that too! Plants watered with a drip system will grow more quickly, and are more productive. This is because they have all the water they need and the plant growth isn’t slowed by water stress (I know I am not the only one who forgets to water at the same time everyday!). Another thing that drip systems can help avoid are fungal diseases, which often develop under moist conditions and occur when plants get too much water.

5. Reduce Growth of Weeds

Who wouldn’t love to have fewer weeds to pull?  I know I would!  Drip systems help with that too!  Because drip irrigation delivers water directly to the plants you want to grow, less water is wasted on weeds. The soil between the plants will remain drier, which discourages weeds from sprouting.  I am all about that!

Are you ready to invest a bit of money and time into your garden?  There are starter kits sold for gardens anywhere from really small to very large.  Just make sure you purchase one that you can add to later, if you might need to.  You wont regret it!  You will love all the benefits of drip irrigation, and so will your pocketbook!

See the Happy!

I’ve been feeling guilty for planting some thirsty palms in an increasingly arid Northern California. We’ve had 8 inches of rain this rain-year and only 12 inches last year! I’m trying to “tighten up” my irrigation in anticipation of water restrictions and wanted to tap into the hive mind

I set up some timed drip irrigation in my backyard and put “umbrella” style bubblers on my king palms and a few Japanese maples. I haven’t tried to measure the amount of water I’m using, but have read it can be more than the soil can absorb. It’s basic rainb1rd big box setup on a battery operated timer at the spigot. I used the same bubblers at their lower setting in my potted palms (kentias etc) on 1/4 inch line attached to 1/2 line.  I made sure the diameter of the water is within the pots edge  

I’m about to lay out the irrigation for my front landscape. I have two species of Rhopalostylis and a Beccariophoenix alfredii that need the consistency of drip. I’m planning to use the same 1/2” line but wanted feedback on emitters

are you using plain drip emitters as shown? do you run them from 1/2” to 1/4” lines and just end the drip near the trunk? How close to the trunk? Is 3 enough for say a palm with rootball that filled 24inch box?

Or do you run circles of 1/2” with emitters coming directly from the line?

do you make a basin to contain the water? I’ve got one palm on a small hillside, do you install one or two drips uphill?

I’ve found 1/4, 1/2, and 1 gallon per hour emitters. Are they usually pretty accurate? Do you prefer one gauge at a particular number of hours each week? My site is a large raised garden with fast-draining soil

I’m also growing P. roebelenii, Butia odorata, and Chamerops humilis. I’m not so worried about those but wanted an idea how minimal water I can keep them from folks in SoCal 

ive attached some lame photos I patched together on my iPad for reference! ;-)

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Please let me know about other threads that may answer my questions  I’ve read enough to be very confused and overwhelmed with options

thanks in advance!

trey

ps: I’ve seen the beautiful Rhopalostylis all over Balboa Park in San Diego - how much annual water do you think those receive?

Edited April 12, by thallo
One more question

I posted my setup here:

https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/-irrigation-system-guide/&tab=comments#comment-

In Florida we rarely have extended droughts, but this spring definitely tested my setup.  We had 0.5" of rain from mid-February until yesterday, and a lot of 90 degree days.  Except for a few nursery area mini-fan sprays, I have everything on button drippers.  Just route the 1/2" hose nearby and then pop the button drippers into that hose.  I place the end of the 1/4" hose somewhat near the base, but not right on top of the palm.  If you planted a palm from a 24" box I'd make sure the dripper tube ends somewhere within that box area.  Otherwise you are watering the nearby dirt and not the palm.  As it roots in you move the drip tubes out away from the trunk. 

I tend to use two drip emitters per large palm, spaced opposite each other.  This is so the water is distributed a bit more evenly, and for redundancy.  If one dripper gets clogged, the other is probably still working.  So if I wander around and see a palm with signs of water stress, it likely hasn't gone bone dry from a single dripper failing.

Here in rainy, sandy FL I use two 1gph drippers for a 10-15' tall Beccariophoenix Alfredii, running for 30 minutes.  That's 1gph * 2 * 0.5 hours = 1 gallon of water for that palm.  This worked fine in our spring drought, the only plants that suffered were a couple of flushing cycads (Encephalartos Hildebrandtii and Whitelockii) that needed some additional water during the flush.  Your soil, humidity, and temperatures are totally different from mine.  So I can't recommend anything specific for your palms and area.

It's been almost five years since I started my drip irrigation and it is still doing well. I had to ask some others for help too, so I'm happy to help the next person.

You can spend days reading online, but I will try to give you the basic set up I used. Obviously, there may be other ways, but this one worked for me.

The main line for the irrigation (3/4") connects to the sprinkler valve and timer for each watering zone. After each valve, I installed a pressure regulator for each to drop the water pressure to 30psi. This is necessary as drip is low pressure and you don't want to blow all the spaghetti tubing and emitters when the system turns on. From there you can use either 1/2" or 3/4" PVC, but 3/4" will give you more flow, which means more emitters can be added to the system. The PVC runs underground, along the perimeter of the hardscaping/planting, to the areas that needed drip. Along the way, I installed 3/4" x 1/2" x 3/4" T's and 1/2" risers (just like a sprinkler system) in each area that needed emitters. At the top of each riser is a 1/2" threaded elbow. All the items above can be found at any hardware store.

The remaining items are likely found online or at an irrigation store (I used Ewing!). Each threaded PVC elbow connects to a 1/2" to barb adapter. Slide the 1/2" drip tubing onto barb adapter and run along the garden bed. Since the tubing is flexible, you can curve it around where you need, but I preferred to add elbows and T's to keep the drip line running straight. Also, I generally tried to make the drip line into a closed loop (sometimes with multiple PVC risers feeding into the drip tubing to keep the pressure equal along the whole line (i.e. I would imagine if you ran a 100ft long drip tubing and the water entered at the beginning of the tubing that the pressure would be great along the beginning, moderate in the middle, and lowest at the 100ft mark. This may not be true, as the line probably fills with water rather quickly and remains constant, but I thought it best to run the underground PVC all the way to the end of the 100ft mark and have three risers with three inputs at the 0, 50, and 100ft mark. This may have been overkill.)

I don't know if it really was necessary, but for each section of drip tubing, I inserted one more 1/2" barb to adapter and capped the 1/2" thread with a 1/2" PVC cap. The idea was to flush out the drip lines before I added spaghetti tubing and emitters, which would get clogged by dirt in the underground PVC pipes. I assumed I would then annually flush the lines, but I never did this. I haven't had issues with clogged emitters.

Phew.... now is the fun part! At every planting, I would puncture the 1/2" drip tubing with an emitter punch tool, insert the 1/4" barbed connector to connect the 1/4" spaghetti tubing to the 1/2" drip tubing, then cut the tubing an inch from the plant and add the emitter of my choice (1/2 gallon up to 2 gallon per hour). I used a drip stake next to the plant to keep the emitter where I wanted it.

Here's some photos when I initially installed the drip system: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/-the-state-paid-me-to-plant-a-palm-garden/

Edited April 16, by msporty

I would recommend planting in depressions or swales to help direct the water to your plant of choice. If you have a bit of soil undulation in your landscape and lets say your palm is at the bottom of a slope I make the swale flare out a bit up slope a bit to capture the runoff rain from the slope. I then mulch the swale with organics of all sorts to soak up and provide a bit of protection to the soil underneath and regularly add more when the organics break down.

Admittedly I'm in a different part of the world to Northern California and we are wetter with around 900mm of rain annually. My soil is a clay peat mix which is slowly being upgraded with organics (so I'm not on beach sand).

I've used these.

I use the ones on a stake and connect them to a 4mm wide tube which connects into LDPE piping that I have running through my property. I use one or two spectrums per plant. I've literally got hundreds of them in the landscape.

I also have flush points to open up the distributor pipes to clear any debris that may build up in the pipes. My water supply is from a well in the ground. I pump the water into a settlement tank then pump to my landscape from the tank. I pump into main distributor pipes of 50mm ( 2 inch) diameter and then via valves I can switch zones manually to run smaller distributor LDPE pipes.

For thirstier plants that I want to water more than a spectrum will put out (ie Ravenea rivularis, Rhopalostylis etc) I use these. 

https://nutrienwaterstore.com.au/micro-irrigation/pot-jet-3-outlet-spray-stake/

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