jleiwig, that makes Granny very jealous. I wish I could find a setup like that...I just paid $26 plus tax for 2 50-foot rolls of the drip tape for my AZ cactus gardens.

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

Check out dripworks.com , I believe you can get the same stuff for about 1/2 that price.

The kit contents look fine, I wouldn't write home about the price. Put in the price you want to pay and go from there, if you get lucky, great.

Dan

Try the http://www.dripirrigation.com/

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Johns Journal

Posted by petzold6596 8b southern NM (My Page) on Wed, Feb 4, 09 at 12:58

Check out dripworks.com , I believe you can get the same stuff for about 1/2 that price.

The drip tape alone is $90 from dripworks.

Posted by jbest123 Zone 5 PA (My Page) on Wed, Feb 4, 09 at 15:15

Try the http://www.dripirrigation.com/
John

Their kit is 122.84 and is 250' less drip tape and 50' less header line than the one referenced above

jleiwig, that makes Granny very jealous. I wish I could find a setup like that...I just paid $26 plus tax for 2 50-foot rolls of the drip tape for my AZ cactus gardens.
Granny

Just go to irrigationmart.com and click on their ebay auctions.

jleiwig, remind me again mid-March! I don't think Mr. H would be too happy if I had a complete irrigation setup to pack into the Ranger for the trip home ;-)

Granny

Here is a link that might be useful: Annie's Kitchen Garden

I used to see starter kits like this in Western WA at the feed supply store near me, and it would be late fall/closeout, 99.99 or something similar, but there's be metal staples and such instead of other things. Anyway, if you don't see that sort of kit around you any time in the stores, and the shipping isn't too much, they aren't ripping you off, and you can feel good about that & they aren't losing money either.

1/2 in hose will take longer to water but it won't kill anything as the volume may not be there, esp uphill. And you are going to need some metal staples (IIRC HD has them 5.95 for pkg 25) to hold the poly pipe down and more tees, 2 90s for the end beds, and more end caps if you have 4 beds, no big deal, just lay out what you need, then go to store for that stuff and whatever else you find you need.

Fun!

Dan

I'm going to wait and see what the local stores get in stock this year. I doubt they will have any drip tape, but if their drip emmiters are cheap enough I may just go that route. If not, I'll be like granny and ordering it mid March!

It certainly is a good idea and shopping around is too (if only to visit some hardware stores ;o) ).

f you have some uphill, j, you may want to go the 3/4 in. route and maybe a 15 gph reducer. In my mind, without doing the calculations, at first & second glance the 1/2 in. with all those emitters works better on a downhill. Again, depending upon your slope, you likely won't kill anything but it'll take a long time to water (and you may have to get a hose bibb timer).

Dan

Posted by dan_staley USDA 5/S 2b (My Page) on Thu, Feb 5, 09 at 11:37

It certainly is a good idea and shopping around is too (if only to visit some hardware stores ;o) ).
f you have some uphill, j, you may want to go the 3/4 in. route and maybe a 15 gph reducer. In my mind, without doing the calculations, at first & second glance the 1/2 in. with all those emitters works better on a downhill. Again, depending upon your slope, you likely won't kill anything but it'll take a long time to water (and you may have to get a hose bibb timer).

Dan

Actually it's very flat, with no noticable elevation to where the garden is going to go. I'm planning on running 1.5" PVC buried along the edge of the patio to where the garden will be. I'll then branch off of this to each bed and the SWCs. I'll use pieces of hose to run from a manifold on my spigot to a vacuum breaker, fertilizer injector, filter and then on to the PVC. The podpiper on the vegetable forum has a very similar setup that I plan on borrowing ideas from.

Oh, then you're good.

No worries, you may want to watch for overflow of the SWCs depending upon how much water you are delivering elsewhere, and salting of your drip tape at the end of the season if you fert a lot. One more thing if I may, then I'll shut up, we started using a battery-operated timer last year at the spigot in the SFG, which goes to soaker hose, and it's taken a lot of worry/hassle away.

Fun project!

Dan

Posted by dan_staley USDA 5/S 2b (My Page) on Fri, Feb 6, 09 at 1:10

Oh, then you're good.
No worries, you may want to watch for overflow of the SWCs depending upon how much water you are delivering elsewhere, and salting of your drip tape at the end of the season if you fert a lot. One more thing if I may, then I'll shut up, we started using a battery-operated timer last year at the spigot in the SFG, which goes to soaker hose, and it's taken a lot of worry/hassle away.

Fun project!

Dan
Thanks for the tip, but I have automatic float valves to install on the SWCs, so they in theory should shut off automatically as long as they don't get tangled in roots, which shouldn't be a problem with the landscape fabric I use in the SWCs. The timer sounds like a good idea. I've been looking at them, but can't decide what I want.

I'm also worried about the fert salts clogging the lines, but I've heard that if you put the fertilizer injector before the filter you'll be fine.