Just finished up this article today and I thought I'd pass it along. It's especially helpful to those growing in pots although I find my in-ground trees respond well as well. It saves us so very much time here and the trees respond really well.

http://www.threefoldfarm.org/blog/setting-up-your-own-drip-irrigation-system

If you already have drip irrigation setup, do you have any advice on the emitters you like for potted and in-ground plants?

Very good, informative write-up.  Thanks for taking time to share your setup.  Hope to add something like this in the future for my garden and figs.

Geez Tim I wish I coulda seen this sooner. I set up a Rainbird drip line to my pots this year, and it was a disaster, they don't give proper instructions, their customer service is poor and at the end, their couplings leaked like crazy. In the end, I was forced to buy couplings from a different vendor, these couplings fit outside the 1/2 tubing, as opposed to rainbird's couplings, which fit inside the tubing and leaked big time. I do not recommend them.

I probably should've included a cost estimate in all of this for getting a system setup, but it would vary wildly depending on how many beds or pots or plants are being irrigated. I'm betting you could setup a non-automated system for less than $50 if the runs of tubing weren't too long.

Thanks for the feedback on the article and advice on Rainbird. We had an irrigation controller from them at our home in Texas and liked it very much but the couplings could be junk. :-)

Tim

Thanks so much for this write up, Tim...also for the personal tour/tutorial. After seeing yours and having you explain how it all worked, I went home and purchased one and installed it. It is not as sophisticated as yours, but it sure beats individually watering over 150 plants by hand daily. Thanks, again.

Thanks for sharing, good info!

Tim,

I have a drip system for my potted plants which includes figs and it gives me peace of mind when I'm traveling. I am no longer depended on someone to water my plants when I'm not able. It is a very simple setup and not hard once you know the basic. I started with a container kit and added on from there. One thing that drip depot did right was to educated me on the sizing for tubes. I have it set it up where I use 1/2" tubing as the main line and work off of it with the 1/4" tubing connected to the pots. The 1/2 tubing will let you have a continuous line for anything over 50 feet. Another bit of advice for anyone wanting to do this is to buy extra 1/4" line, you use lots of it.

Kelby, I believe they may make systems to utilize rain barrels for drip irrigation. Not sure how they work with the lower pressure or what kind of emitters you'd have to use...

V, 1/2" main line is the way to go for a home system, unless you can get away with something bigger (I just don't have the pressure). You're right, once you know the basics it's easy to add on

Bill, glad to hear you got one setup! We'll have to compare notes as you add on or expand

Thanks for all of the kind comments, glad to see this was of use!

Tim,

I use the Spot-Spitters as well, I love their simple design nothing to go wrong if they plug up just pop off them and back on. Remove a pot?  pop off and reverse the stick until you need that feed. the .125 feeder line punch a hole direct in the main line stick it in and it self seals. no fittings adapters just main line to feeder line to irrigation stick.  Your setup is real advances beyond what I do I basically have a long length on 3/4 inch with tons of 1/8 that I have snaked about season after season in whatever config I have my pots in. It's indestructible as well. I am using the same line I pulled from my citrus grove in 1994? exposed above ground all that time to sun and freezes and I bet it would last 100 more years.

Thanks, Tim!  Great write-up and resource.  Much appreciated!

Does anyone have any thoughts on fetilizer injectors? I would like to try one on my irrigation system this year.

Johnny,

Thanks for bringing the subject of drip fertilization up.    I recently completed my own drip system (Watering made easy……..Drip) and was thinking auto fertilization would be the next improvement.  Not that I’m totally lazy, but fig trees may be much the better with a steady low dose of nutrients, than whenever I get around to tossing a handful of the fertilizer du jour.

I’m hoping an experience member chimes in for a proven recommendation.   Harvey…..?   After a brief search it appears the injection type (like Mazzei) are easy and cost affordable.    I do like the vacuum or suction type as you can control and monitor amount being distributed.   I’m assuming making up at least a five gallon batch, all pending consentration.   Then too, one would have to make sure use of a water soluble fertilizer, which wouldn’t settle between waterings!  Or, stir up before watering?  

Ideas welcome…..

PS... Thank you Tim for the original post

I used an automated injector unit last year when I got tired of fertilizing by top-dressing. It's certainly not organic (yet) but I hope to head that way. Here's the product I used and found worked well for last season. Time will tell how it performs over a longer haul: http://www.dripworks.com/product/IEZ1GUP

In the long run a commercial unit would probably work better and (I would think) last longer.

And thanks Jack, glad it was helpful!

Tim

Funny you mention me... my order for my Mazzei injector (model 384) came in last week and I finally put it to work two days ago.  Nothing sophisticated  (using a big combination end wrench to hold my suction line in the bucket, LOL), but it works well.  Here I'm dissolving potassium nitrate into a bucket of water and then injected it for my 223 fig trees (newer trees have one emitter and older trees have two).

 

The orchard is manually controlled.  Near my house I use a controller for various needs that I like very much, DIG 5004-I.  It is very versatile.  I've use done station in the past to control propagation misters coming on for 10 seconds very 10 minutes for 9 hours a day, another to irrigate fruit trees every other day for an hour, and just added a station to run misters for my greenhouse ventilation fan continuously for 7 hours a day.  When I bought it the manual didn't include instructions for programming it for the propagation misting setup but I found them from a retailer that sold them for this purpose.