Dryp Irrigation

Hi there,

I'm planing on growing vegetables outside (carrots, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, peas...). I was wondering which drypers will be better for this matter, the ones that are 2L/h or 4L/h or maybe get half of each ?

Also I was planing on getting some 200l deposits (55 gal) to water the plants but if I made the maths correctly I think I may have to use around 200-400l of water for every watering. Is that right ? The thing is that I can get 200-400l of water every saturday but I'm not sure if that's gonna be enough to water until the next saturday.

Afaik, carrots, lettuce, broccoli etc. cannot take 2 liters (and by far not take 4 liters) of water every hour.

I don't have much experience growing veggies but the amount of water you want to feed sounds like _a lot_.

My pump for my drip system is a 4L/h pump.
However, I never let i run more then 10 minutes every 3 to 4 hours.
Otherwise I would be overwatering my plants

It all depends on the system you have and without more info (and pics) it's hard for me to make a proper judgement.
As an example I will use my mother room setup (which is a drip system).

I have a 20-25 liter reservoir, feeding water to about 10 plants.
The pump runs for 10 minutes about 5-8 times a day depending on size, growth etc.
I always optimize the feeding, to make sure there is no under - or over watering.

The 20-25 liter reservoir gets the excess water back through a hose connected to the tray in the mother room.
I would guess that it takes about 2-3 weeks, if not more, to empty the reservoir.

I hope that gives you an idea of plants water usage.

Thanks for the reply k0ijn, I have grown plants in pots before and I use to water them half liter of water so I guess the ones outside will need more water. It's different to grow in pots than outside, also you don't need one dryper per plant, you can use one every two plants or one every 60 cm of pipe.... stuff like that.

So the question still stands if somebody with experience with drip systems outside wants to leave their opinions

well we use drip lines on the farm, they are half inch thick and tun about 80 feet each, they have a small hole every 1 foot for the drip we try to plant were the drip is we leave them on for about 3 hours to ensure the ground is soaked. im not sure how much water we use out fo them but i am sure it is over 200 liters.

how big is your garden? this will help to find out how much water you will need to run them.
also is the drip gonna be below the surface or on top

It's 50 m2 and I was planing on putting the lines on top of the soil. Well, if I could water with 400 liters a week it may be possible to get two containers instead of just one

I have to ask in the shop if they have the pipes with the holes already made coz it would also be cheaper. But I wonder if those lines would be fine to water also carrots and radish for instance coz they are much closer to each other. I guess you don't need one per carrot because each hole or dripper will be able to water more than 4 inches but this is just a guess, can you confirm this mcpurple ?

most drip tape comes with pre made drip holes and some come with out so you can run water up till where you want to water. and yes i do believe the drips would work for carrots and what not but i think it would have to be on longer to absorb the distance to the next plant witch might mean more water. i think 2 55 gal drums could do the job depending on how hot it gets in your parts.

And what about the size ? which one do you think would be better ? 2l/h or 4l/h ? I can only get water during one hour a day (apart from the drums)

im not to suer what 2l/h is. im assuming it is liter per hour?
if so then i would get to 2l/h to conserve water as that is what it seems you want correct?

I want couple of things really, one is to build an irrigation system where I get water from a pipe, and I'm wondering about the dripper size 2 liters per hour or 4l/h. Also the size of the pipe, but I think I'll get the 12mm one istead of the 16mm one.

And the other thing is that I want to collect "clean" water on saturdays in the drums coz the water that I get from the pipes comes with chemical nutes and if I get enough pressure and water from the drums I prefer to water with the "clean" water in the drums instead of using the water with chemicals all the time.

Dryp irrigation, also known as trickle irrigation or microirrigation or localized irrigation , is an irrigation method which saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, either onto the soil surface or directly onto the root zone, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing, and emitters.It is done with the help of narrow tubes which delivers water directly to the base of the plant.

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Water Pipe

We use a drip irrigation system at our pot-in-pot nursery. We water three times per day and the length of watering depends on the size of the pot, the needs of the tree or bush and the growing mediums ability to retain moisture for a certain length of time. For the way we use drip irrigation I know of no set formula for how much water anything needs per watering cycle. We more or less had to play with it to get it right. We will run one third more water through each pot each watering than is needed to assure full saturation of the growing medium. Water can create 'tunnels' of sorts where it will flow through growing medium and some or much will not be adequately watered, so that is why the extra third is run through for each watering.

For home use, ornamental plants/shrubs/trees and general garden vegetables there are basic charts, but even then you will have to somewhat fly by the seat of your pants.

Scheduling
The object of each watering is to bring the moisture in the root zone up to a satisfactory level. Once the desired moisture content is reached, no more water should be applied. Too much water cuts off necessary oxygen and washes nutrients out of the reach of the roots. Before the soil has dried out too much the system should be run again. In this way the plants can be maintained in near optimal conditions.
Many factors affect how much water should be applied in any one period of time. Among these are: soil type, root depth, air temperature, humidity, and the plant’s maturity. With drip irrigation it is possible to take all of these factors into account to provide ideal growing conditions for your plants.
The chart below lists times and intervals for watering different plants. Keep in mind that both are greatly affected by the factors mentioned above. The most important of those factors are depth of the root zone and soil composition. The deeper the roots and the finer the soil, the longer the watering time must be, but you can reduce the frequency of watering. A fine soil such as clay cannot absorb water very quickly, but will hold the moisture for a longer period of time. Shallow root zones and sandy soil types will require frequent waterings of a shorter duration. Observe plant and soil moisture conditions, consult local experts (agricultural extension agents, nursery personnel), and adjust watering times and intervals to maximize growth and minimize water use.
In a system with mixed plantings, such as in most landscaping designs, some compromises may have to be made between plants that require occasional deep watering and those that prefer frequent shallow watering. This can be partly accomplished by using emitters of higher output on the deep rooted plants. If this is not practical because of other factors, a compromise can be reached by doing shallow waterings on a frequent basis as well as occasional deep waterings.

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