Drip line: instructions

[Baylife]

What's up people here's a little step by step tutorial regarding setting up drip lines outdoors.

The general concepts included can be applied to any size plant in any growing environment.

Materials:

- 3/4 inch tubing for the main feed

- 1/4 inch spaghetti tubing

- any multiple gallon per hour flag drillers.

- adapters to stab into the main feed that connect to the spaghetti tubing.

-suitable pump that will aid in creating lots of pressure


So it's a pretty basic setup. The pictures speak for themselves so I can not explain everything In too much details due to time restraints.


1. First set up a general outline that allows for ample walking room.


2. Make sure there's enough pressure.


3. No leaks. Leaks kill water pressure.

4. After setting everything up make sure to do many tests to make sure everything's in check.

5. Clean the drippers by pulling the flag out.

The main line comes in from the right side of the picture. It is split into two separate directions using a T adaptor. It's a lot easier to draw then explain.

I have 5 rows of plants in my setup so I used 3 main feeds which created the walking room I needed to spray and not trip on spaghetti tubes.

The ends of all 3 feeds have to be shut off to create pressure.

 

[Baylife]

 

[Baylife]

 

[Baylife]

Everything else is pretty much on a case by case basis. Deciding how many drippers and how long they should be on is up to the grower. The most efficient way to go is to have 8-10 (1) gallon drippers. Having more drippers means you can cover more surface area. I decided to use less 4 gallon per hour drippers because I only want to water an hour or so a day.

Make sure to clean your drippers out with water after EVERY feeding. If you water with just water then your good...

Now I spend my time doing other stuff while my plants water themselves...

 

[Baylife]

If anyone has any questions let me know. Parts like the nipples and tool to pierce holes into the main line are available at any hardware store. This thread was more of a way to broadcast some simple tips and tricks not so much a tutorial. Setting up the dripline for my recent grow was the easiest part of the whole process. It's so easy a caveman can do it blindfolded. The difficulty comes with the day to day maintenance. Drippers tend to clog up easy if they are not suspended above the surface of the pot. If they do clog, pull the flag out and then insert it back in. It's as easy as that. Always check your driplines and clean them after every non-water watering. Check for leaks regularly.

 

[SunGrown]

It is great you took the time to do this. So many first year growers fuck up how simple water can be.

I use different emitters, only because I literally have tried every fucking emitter out there and all have failed at being maintenance free except this sprayer....

and this guy is adjustable and covers 180 degrees, so I run one 1/4 inch line per pot teed off with two of these guys and run my auto 3 times a day and all is happy. I run a hozon siphon valve for injecting nutes thru these all day long, no clogs

again, to op, great write up! hope my info is helpful as well

 

[Dunge]

Cool.
I just love your bag yard.
Interesting how you put the dripper at the far end. I always poked them into the main line, but it seems water will flow either way.
My latest fascination is sticking what you call spaghetti line directly into a drilled hole in 3/4 PVC.
Don't worry about clogs, but each line gets identical flow, so it's not as versatile.
But so easy to build and operate.
Got the idea from a friend who runs a commercial greenhouse.

I was concerned they would leak, but properly sized drill and you're good.
I just open the ball valve enough to get a good flow and watch it work.

 

[SunGrown]

Cool.
I just love your bag yard.
Interesting how you put the dripper at the far end. I always poked them into the main line, but it seems water will flow either way.
My latest fascination is sticking what you call spaghetti line directly into a drilled hole in 3/4 PVC.
Don't worry about clogs, but each line gets identical flow, so it's not as versatile.
But so easy to build and operate.
Got the idea from a friend who runs a commercial greenhouse.
View attachment 422058 View attachment 422060
I was concerned they would leak, but properly sized drill and you're good.
I just open the ball valve enough to get a good flow and watch it work.

this manifold does what you want with pvc without concerns of leaks. and each of the eight 1/4" lines are adjustable for flow rate

you just have to tee in a 1/2" riser on your main pvc run

I have used these and similar ones for years indoors

 

[Baylife]

that looks pretty dope is that more of an inline dripper? @SunGrown.

 

[SunGrown]

its just a manifold that has a half inch pipe thread fitting. so you tee into your pvc with a tee that has a female 1/2 inch thread coming off and screw a half inch male riser onto that then the manifold. The manifold has eight 1/4 inch nipples that you hook your spaghetti tubing to and each nipple has an adjustable flow rate

hope this helps.

 

[Dunge]

its just a manifold that has a half inch pipe thread fitting. so you tee into your pvc with a tee that has a female 1/2 inch thread coming off and screw a half inch male riser onto that then the manifold. The manifold has eight 1/4 inch nipples that you hook your spaghetti tubing to and each nipple has an adjustable flow rate

hope this helps.

I like the idea of being able to adjust each output, but the online reviews of these are not encouraging.
Many users complain about short usable life before ports break or housing leaks.

 

[SunGrown]

I like the idea of being able to adjust each output, but the online reviews of these are not encouraging.
Many users complain about short usable life before ports break or housing leaks.

there are a lot of different brands, but yeah, I have had a problem a time or two, I like the sprayers I posted for outdoors and open 1/4 inch line inside these days

 

[caregiverken]

Now I spend my time doing other stuff while my plants water themselves...

Great work Man!

Can you tell me how many gallons of water one of those plants drink each day?

 

[Baylife]

Great work Man!

Can you tell me how many gallons of water one of those plants drink each day?

I could feed them 10 gallons and they would be happy. Because sea green is so expensive I only feed like 5 gallons each tho as far as fertilizer mixes. I'd love to do 8 gallons or so of sea green in a ideal world tho.

 

[caregiverken]

Thanks yeah mine get 5 to ten gal each day also
Any less and they complain
You're giving them seagreen every day?

 

[Baylife]

Nah once a week or whenever I can.

 

[Seamaiden]

It is great you took the time to do this. So many first year growers fuck up how simple water can be.

I use different emitters, only because I literally have tried every fucking emitter out there and all have failed at being maintenance free except this sprayer....

and this guy is adjustable and covers 180 degrees, so I run one 1/4 inch line per pot teed off with two of these guys and run my auto 3 times a day and all is happy. I run a hozon siphon valve for injecting nutes thru these all day long, no clogs

again, to op, great write up! hope my info is helpful as well

Fantastic experience talking once again. I ended up going with drippers again in my new bed, but did consider the spray emitters. The thing is, I can't really gauge how much water they actually use and I'm trying to be very conscientious about that. Right now my biggest bed has 54 1gph drippers total, and I'm running those for 7mins 3x/24hr period and that's keeping my girls and the cover crops very well watered. I may even be able to reduce that length of time. My Smart Pots, however, don't seem to be doing well on the 3/pot for 30mins at the same frequency, so I may add another dripper or two per pot. Or... maybe the Smarties are where I should try the spray emitters...? Question again is what would the gph be at any given spray rate? Is it a range of rates at least?

 

[SunGrown]

@Seamaiden , you are right, they can be hard to judge and know for sure, but what you can do is set them up adjusted to the spray area you like, then run them into a 5 gallon bucket for x amount of time and figure them out that way. Maybe do this once every few weeks just to be sure they are still in the range you like.

I too am being very conscientious about water use and am sure this is the best way for me to actually soak my whole pots/beds thoroughly without using a frickin water hose, and more importantly, not waste time standing there with a hose.

I simply can not use drip emitters at all unless they are truly designed to allow fert thru. Open 1/4" lines with a pressure compensator is fine though, but stoill the soaking of the whole bed does not happen nice and evenly like I need to sleep better. I don't run fert all the time, but when I do I simply want to mix the tank and drop the siphon hose in and forget about it.

I may change to drip tape at one place next year, I have read of one brand of the tape that is designed to be clog/maintenance free with fert.

 

[Seamaiden]

Which brand is that? I've been eyeing the drip tape myself, but moreso because it uses ultra-low water pressure.

 

[SunGrown]

Which brand is that? I've been eyeing the drip tape myself, but moreso because it uses ultra-low water pressure.

the chapin drip tape is supposed to work well, peaceful valley has it i believe. You could make a drive and ask them what they think about it, it will be new to me as well

hth