How to Install a Baste Irrigation Organisation in Your Yard

Save fourth dimension, save water and pamper your plants

Time

A total day

Complication

Beginner

Cost

$51–100

Introduction

There's an easier way to keep your plants watered, even when your life gets decorated or you're away from home — a simple, automated drip irrigation organization. These systems are affordable and easy to ready.

Materials Required

  • one/2-in. poly tubing
  • i/4-in. vinyl tubing
  • adapter
  • backflow preventer
  • Barbed fittings
  • Filter
  • pressure regulator
  • pocket-size stakes
  • watering devices

Overview of the Baste System

Whether you're growing roses to win prizes or just trying to keep a few flowerbeds looking good, y'all know what a chore watering is, lugging hoses around the m and moving them every half hour or so. Micro irrigation — a network of plastic tubing and low-book drippers and sprinklers that reach every part of the garden — takes the hassle out of watering.

The materials are inexpensive and easy to install using nothing more than a pruning shears and a special hole punch tool. Once you lot lay out the tubing and connect the drippers, sprinklers or sprayers, y'all'll exist able to h2o your plants by only turning on the water and letting information technology run for an hr or two.

In this projection we'll introduce yous to the nuts of micro irrigation, including planning tips and step-by-step installation instructions. For more details, especially in the planning phase, nosotros recommend that you read through 1 of the manufacturers' free planning guides.

Projection pace-past-pace (11)

Step 1

Where to Buy Drip Irrigation Systems

Yous tin can find kits and individual components online and at home centers, garden centers and plumbing suppliers. A bones kit that waters up to 20 containers or a 75-sq.-ft. expanse costs $25 to $50 and comes with everything you demand except the timer. Higher quality kits may price $seventy or more.

Step 2

Program the Drip Irrigation System

If this is your commencement venture into micro irrigation, start small and experiment to get a feel for how the organization works. Cull 1 or two flowerbeds or a garden and install a simple one-zone garden drip system.

The bones planning strategy is to pick the best watering device to serve each type of plant. Then determine a flow rate that supplies acceptable h2o to every constitute in the watering zone.

  • Showtime by measuring your garden and making a elementary sketch.
  • Choose the type and flow rate of the watering devices based on your soil and the plants' h2o needs. Marking these on the baste irrigation organisation program and draw in the tubing route to connect them. This will involve a trivial guesswork.
  • Endeavour to comprehend all the root zones of your plants. Don't worry about getting everything perfect at first.
  • Add a few actress of each type of watering device and buy the watering devices, tubing and the basic parts shown in Figure B for the faucet hookup. Once you see how the drip irrigation system works, you'll find information technology'due south easy to relocate or add together emitters to get a more counterbalanced water flow or amend coverage.
  • Set up the system to run between i and two hours at a fourth dimension, two or iii times a calendar week.

Step 3

DIY Irrigation System Planning Rules of Thumb

  • Apply 1/2-gph (gallons per hr) drippers in clay soil, ane-gph drippers in loam, and 2-gph drippers in sandy soil.
  • Add the gph rate of all drippers, bubblers, sprayers and sprinklers you programme to utilise. If y'all're using i/2-in. tubing for the main line, limit the total to betwixt 150 and 220 gallons per hour (check with the manufacturer).
  • Limit the length of 1/ii-in. tubing on one zone to a maximum of most 200 ft.
  • Limit the full gph on a length of ane/iv-in. tubing to 25 to 30.

As y'all add to the system, information technology'southward best to carve up your yard into groups of plants that have like watering requirements. With this strategy, you add a dissever organisation (zone), starting at the water source, for each group of plants or surface area of the yard. For help with planning a large, more complicated arrangement (and for the best prices), work with a retailer that specializes in micro irrigation.

Stride 4

Parts of a Drip Irrigation System

  • Battery-operated timer. One 9-volt bombardment will last an entire flavour. Costs $thirty to $50 depending on the model.
  • Backflow preventer. Prevents dirty garden water from flowing back into your household water lines.
  • Screen filter. Traps particles that could clog the emitters. May be separate or function of the backflow device.
  • Pressure level regulator. Lowers the incoming water pressure level to a level the drip organisation can tolerate; 25 to 30 psi (pounds per square inch) is standard.
  • Hose adapter. Connects h2o source to the main line.
  • 1/2-in. principal line. Don't exceed 200 ft. of tubing in a single circuit.
  • Elbow plumbing equipment. Connects sections of hose to 1 another or other components.
  • Preinstalled emitter. Spaced every six to 12 inches; expert for straight rows of plants and for shrubs.
  • Pigsty punch. Makes ports in the primary line to connect watering devices and i/4-in. tubing.
  • 1/ii-gph pressure-compensating dripper. Platonic for flat and hillside terrain and heavy clay soil.
  • Hose end clamps. Closes off the stop of the main line.
  • 1/4-in. barbed tee. Allows branching to 1/4-in. from 1/2-in. lines.
  • Tubing stakes and adjustable sprayer. You tin can mix and match watering devices, but don't use more than 150 gallons per hour (gph) on a single circuit.
  • 1/4-in. micro tubing. Good for containers, zoned areas and customizing your system. Comes in multiple colors to help hide information technology. Don't exceed 50 ft. of 1/four-in. tubing in a single circuit.
  • one/iv-in. barbed connector. Connects one/four-in. micro tubing to the main line.
  • Goof plugs. Plug unneeded holes when yous alter the placement of your tubing, watering devices or landscaping.
  • Contrasted emitters. Adjustable emitters, also chosen shrubblers and drippers, tin utilize every bit little as one/two-gph or as much as 10-gph. The right number, type and size of emitters depend on plant type, soil and weather conditions. The yellowish flag dripper shown can be taken apart and cleaned.
  • Tee plumbing fixtures. Creates branch lines to aggrandize and customize the system.
  • 1/two-in. universal coupler. Allows you to cutting out damaged tubing and install new line.
  • Hose terminate clamps. Closes off the terminate of the master line.

Footstep 5

Begin at the Outside Faucet

The Y-splitter with shutoffs allows yous to keep the drip system on all the time (and operated by a controller) and still utilise your regular garden hose. Y'all don't accept to use a controller, but you must use a backflow preventer.

  • Mount a 'Y' with shutoff valves to your faucet.
  • Then attach the optional timer, backflow preventer, filter, pressure regulator and adapter.
    • Pro tip: Some of these components are available with hose thread or piping thread, so make certain to match the thread blazon when you purchase parts. Joining hose thread to pipe thread will result in leaks.

Step half-dozen

Lay Out the Tubing

  • Connect the 1/2-in. poly tubing to the faucet stop, and then lay the tubing through the garden according to your programme.
  • Stake it down almost every five or six anxiety.
  • Remember, you can embrace the tubing with decorative mulch subsequently to hide it.
    • Pro tip: Soak the tubing in warm water or lay it out in the lord's day for a little while to soften information technology and make it easier to work with.
  • Cutting the tubing with a pruning shears.

Pace seven

Install the Fittings

Use T-fittings to create branches and elbows to brand 90-caste bends.

  • Purchase fittings to match the brand of tubing yous're using. If you demand to join two brands of tubing or y'all're not sure which you accept, you tin can purchase universal fittings that will piece of work on all diameters of tubing.
  • You can bury 1/two-in. poly tubing in a shallow trench to conceal information technology every bit it crosses a path or small-scale section of backyard. Merely for longer lengths, especially in high-traffic areas, we recommend substituting 1/2-in. PVC pipe instead.
  • Buy adapters to connect the i/2-in. poly tubing to the ends of the PVC pipe.
    • Pro tip : Check with your local plumbing inspector before burying any pipe to see whether special backflow prevention is required.

Step 8

Install the Connectors

  • Punch holes in the tubing wherever you lot desire to install a watering device.
  • Push and twist until the tip of the punch creates a clean hole.
    • Pro tip:  Hold the hole punch at a correct angle to the tubing when yous punch a hole for an emitter or a connector. This makes a round hole that will seal tightly effectually the barb of the emitter.
  • Press a barbed connector into the pigsty in the 1/two-in. tubing.
  • If the 1/four-in. tubing isn't already attached, add a length of one/4-in. tubing to accomplish your dripper, sprayer or sprinkler location.

Pace nine

Install the Baste-System Watering Device

You can purchase sprinklers and sprayers equally assemblies that include a barbed connector, a short length of 1/four-in. tubing and a plastic stake, or buy the parts separately and assemble them yourself.

  • Printing pressure-compensating (PC) drippers, sprinklers or sprayers onto the end of the 1/iv-in. tubing.
  • Utilise a stake to back up the dripper and anchor information technology in the root zone of the constitute.
  • When your DIY irrigation arrangement installation is complete, flush the baste irrigation system past running water through information technology.
  • Utilize end cap fittings to close the open up ends of the 1/ii-in. tubing.

Step 10

Types of Watering Devices

One of the first things yous'll notice when browsing the brochures or Web sites is a wide multifariousness of watering devices. Here are the basic types and a few things you demand to know about each one. While the ones shown here are the about common, there are many other, more specialized emitters. Meet the micro irrigation catalogs for the other types and their uses.

Drippers

Apply these to h2o container plants, individual plants, or purchase "inline" drippers and utilise them in a serial with a 1/iv-in. tube.

  • Drippers are color-coded for unlike flow rates between 1/two-gph and four-gph. In full general, utilise lower menstruation rates for less porous soil, like dirt, to allow more time for the water to soak in. Buy pressure-compensating (PC) drippers to maintain a steady flow despite the water pressure.

Bubblers

A cross betwixt drippers and sprayers, many bubblers are adjustable for flows up to 35-gph and diameters to 18 inches.

  • Since they put out more than water than drippers, they're skillful for larger plants like roses, tomatoes and shrubs.

Sprinklers

These are miniature versions of sprinklers y'all might utilize in the one thousand. Most accept menses rates between 14- and 40-gph and embrace a radius of three to 30 feet.

  • Since most sprinklers have a relatively loftier menses rate, y'all tin can't use more than than about 15 or 20 in one zone of one/two-in. tubing.

Sprayers

These are like sprinklers without moving parts. Yous tin choose a spray pattern from a quarter circumvolve upwards to a total circle, or buy sprayers with adjustable spray patterns.

  • They spray from iv- to 34-gph and up to a radius of about 12 anxiety.
  • Utilise sprayers to water ground cover or densely planted flowerbeds.

Soaker Baste Line

Also chosen emitter tubing, drip line consists of ane/two-in. or 1/iv-in. tubing with built-in drippers. It's available with emitters spaced different distances apart for different catamenia rates.

  • Drip line is great for vegetable gardens or rows of plants. You can utilize it to encircle shrubs and big plants, or lay it out in a filigree pattern every bit a substitute for sprinklers in a densely planted flowerbed.
    • Pro tip: Use ane/4-in. drip line for maximum flexibility.

Step 11

Maintaining Your Baste Irrigation Arrangement

    • Make clean the filter one time a month (more than often if you have well h2o with a lot of sediment).
    • Audit the drippers occasionally to make sure they're working.
    • In cold climates, fix for winter past removing the shutoff Y-splitter, backflow preventer, controller, filter and pressure regulator and bringing them inside. Remove cease plugs and drain or blow the water out of the system. Supervene upon the caps and plug the faucet end of the tubing likewise.