Return to the Utah Gardening Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Drip Irrigation for Veggetables
| | |
Posted by gendo Utah (My Page) on Sat, Jul 7, 07 at 21:10
| I've been lurking on the forum for awhile, but registered today.
I'm planning to put a drip system in my vegetable garden. For those of you who use drip, what size of emitter do I need, for example, a tomato plant -- that is how many gph (gallons per hour) do you recommend in soil that is neither sandy or clay (I live in Elk Ridge)? Do I actually bury the emitter with the plant or does the emitter sit on the surface of the soil? Also, will I need a pressure reducer, since the system is set up for sprinklers at present? Lots of questions...
In past years, I buried two milk jugs with each plant and cut little holes. It worked wonderfully, but the trouble is that when the plants get large, it's really hard to find the jugs. Also, I'm hoping to set this up to water automatically (pure bliss).
|
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Drip Irrigation for Veggetables
| | |
| With drip emitters, you leave them on the surface of the ground, but you can cover them with mulch if you'd like. You should use a pressure reducer. I've done it in the past without the pressure reduce, using pressure compensating emitters, but the pressure eventually can pop the hoses off the emitters, and you have to get little clamps and stuff that just make it more of a hassle. But I have to say that I find it more convenient to just water my tomatoes with a built-in sprinkler system. I know many people don't like to water veggies with sprinklers, but I set up my veggie garden area with six sprinklers around it, and it's worked fine for tomatoes, pumpkins, corn, peas, and strawberries. It's possible my corn needed more water than they got from the sprinklers for optimal production, but everything else has done fine. I also like how sprinklers last longer than drip systems in terms of replacing or adjusting parts. I didn't know how much water tomatoes really needed, so I googled and found the link below. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato irrigation info
RE: Drip Irrigation for Veggetables
| | |
| I've been out of town so I didn't post earlier...I just recently installed a drip system for my veggies. I live in Springville. We used a pressure regulator, and then emitters that release 1 gallon per hour. I have also done the gallon jug thing. In my bean patch I got these little sprinkler stakes that hook up to the tubing just like the emitters do and they work great for that. I've always been told that tomatoes, peppers, and veggies in the curbit family shouldn't be watered overhead, that it encourages disease and the splash back can infect the plants. If you are ever in Springville, you could come and see what I did in my garden. I'm still trying to figure out how much water the tomatoes need---especially with all of this heat. You can e mail me, spyfferoni at yahoo dot com. Tyffanit |
|
|
|
|
