low tech drip irrigation

[Anny]

I'm thinking of trying my hand at some drip irrigation this year. The problem is I'm a little over whelmed when I try looking stuff up online.

Does anyone have any good websites they can point me to for a beginner? Something low tech and not to pricey?

Or does anyone have any ideas of their own that have worked well for them?

 

[lesa]

I use "weeping" hoses- I get them at Walmart. They do just what they sound like- just kind of leak water out of a fabric hose. They work very well, keeps the water where you want it. I control them with a timer- just in case I forget!! Not exactly drip irrigation, but it works for me. (It rained so much last summer, I turned them on once!!)

 

[ducks4you]

I STILL want to figure out how to get water in a rain barrel and use gravity and a drip-hose to do the work for me!!
...MAN, I'm lazy

 

[Catalina]

I like this company http://www.dripworksusa.com/
They even have how to videos.

 

[vfem]

Thanks for this question Anny... and thanks for the link Catalina!!!

 

[Grow 4 Food]

Me TOO Ducks!

 

[DawnSuiter]

I am building a system right now... it will require us to manually turn it on & off but that's ok.

I have a 55 gallon drum collecting water from the roofs and a gutter... when the drum is too full the water comes out an overflow pipe near the top of the barrel and pours out "away" from the garden (eventually this will be hooked up to a 2nd barrel)

The barrel has a simple spigot open/close at the bottom.

The spigot puts the water in my aqueduct system.. which is made of 2 liter bottles with the tops & bottoms cut off leaving only the perfect tube which when glued together makes a pipe. Every OTHER 2 liter is ALSO cut lengthwise, which allows it to slide inside of another bottle and get a tiny bit smaller.. that allows an uncut bottle to fit on the end of that. I am overlapping about 2 inches and using some kitchen sealer to glue them together... creating a pipe.

(this is the part I'm still experimenting with)
NOW.. I have to support the aqueduct and run it

Option 1 - run it along the short end of the gardens so that it can simply DUMP water into the spaces between rows, which also run slightly down hill to facilitate the spread of the water. We can then push it around if we want.

Option 2 - run an aqueduct down each ROW of the garden as well... and then creating a hole where each plant will be/is planted.

Option 2a - let the water drip into the soil near the base of the plant unsupervised

Option 2b - use a narrower bottle, single serve soda, cut the bottom off and use the rest of the bottle as a funnel and bury it with the plant so that the water from the aqueduct drops INTO the smaller bottle, past the top of the soil and down more into the root area.


That is the system for my back garden which is too far from the hose (well not TOO far, but I gotta hook up a couple of hoses and I'm too lazy for that)

A similar system is being worked for the front garden TOO but no reservoir.. we're using a utility sink that we'll have to clean veggies, wash up , clean poultry & dog waterers etc.. whatever we need.

 

[Grow 4 Food]

Dawn - We are going to need some pictures!

 

[Ladyhawke1]

I saw a pciture in Johnny's seed catalog for the 100 FT plan. It looked like simple starter plan and cost about $45.00. I will use that picture as a guide. Here is their link. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/c-229-watering-irrigation-supplies.aspx

No I am not a shill for JSS. I am a visual person and the catalog was helpful.

 

[DawnSuiter]

I'm trying to set the system up a bit before I take the pics.

Give me another week or so and I think I'll have the back garden all setup.