(Bump)

Anybody have experience to share?

Thank you

I am not sure how to use a drip system. I believe that a drip system is not really needed unless you have tons of crops to water. If that is so, it depends on how much water comes out at a time.

The water needs to reach underneath the roots so that the roots can crawl to reach it. If the water is just on the surface, the roots will come up to the surface to drink. This doesn't produce healthy plants.

For new seeds in the ground, I usually hand-water each spot like once a week. I really soak it, but not too much. Once they start sprouting, I just go to each one and give it water. I then pick out the weak ones.

I hope I didn't confuse you too much. Basically, new seeds need to have a uniform wetness to the soil. Don't make it too wet though or too dry. Stick your finger down and see how deep the wetness goes. If it is still at an inch or two, you are good. Only when the top soil gets dry do I water my seedlings.

This year almost all of my seedlings rose up. I had them in a plastic moisture tent though to hold the water in. When I sow seeds outdoors, I use the method using my finger. Good luck.

I have had the same exact dilemma this year. I am doing raised beds/square foot gardening for the first time (previously, just self-watering containers). I set up a drip irrigation system, with one .5 gph dripper in the center of each square. The water coverage seems to be erratic - some square have not sprouted anything at all, while the neighboring square, with the same exact seeds planted in it, has sprouted just fine. I've also already lost my young cucumber plants for reasons I can only attribute to lack of water. Unfortunately, my plot is in a community garden that I can only get to once a week. Like you, I have gone from watering once a day, to twice, and now to four times. I hate to waste water, but hate more to waste my plants.

I think the ideal thing is to manually water until the plants have matured a little. We know that the drippers spread moisture cononically down into the soil, and my belief is that, until the roots have grown deeper and wider, they won't meet up with that area of moisture (unless the dripper is right on top of them). I think ideally, one would water manually until the plants have matured a bit.

That being said, my lettuce, chard, beets and carrots seem to the doing well. My peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers need help. I will soon add some additional drippers into the system to provide water directly on top of their roots.

Elight, I'm also making the switch from containers to raised bed this year.
I don't think increasing my irrigation frequency made much of a difference to the coverage area.
10 days after sowing I only saw germination near the emitters but a week later almost all spots have germinated.
After my OP I began hand watering every few days on top of drip every 2 days for 90 mins and that did the trick. It's already in the 70s to 80s and sunny here. If I go down an inch the moisture is nice and even.

The pattern I used is a bit different than yours though and I believe it gives more coverage. See image. Imagine drawing a circle around each emitter. If the emitters are in a grid you'll have dry spots in the spandrels. Ideally the circles are staggered and nested. I think that's the point of the wavy pattern I did. I just followed the dripworks website.

Since you only have weekly access maybe you hand water and lay down a moisture barrier like soughtseven mentioned.