How to Convert Sprinklers to Drip Irrigation
With drought and population growth, water shortages are being felt all over the planet. Now that demand is growing, it is easier than ever to find low volume sprinkler heads, soaker lines and drip emitters. Converting your existing sprinklers to drip irrigation can make your garden more water efficient and easier to manage. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Drip irrigation tubing ¼ inch
- Optional ½ or 3/8 inch tubing
- Emitters
- Optional micro sprays
- End caps
- Connectors
- Manifold
Instructions
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Draw a quick sketch of the existing sprinkler system you want to convert to drip irrigation. Starting at each valve, pencil in the PVC lines and sprinkler heads. Add a rough drawing of each garden area that needs to be watered. Using graph paper makes it easier to space the drawing accurately.
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Mark each plant area to be watered with an X in a different color from the existing system you have drawn. Draw different size Xs for larger plants, general areas of ground cover and smaller plants.
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Connect the Xs with lines to indicate the tubing of your drip irrigation system. Design your system so you use the least tubing possible to cover each area. The tubing is flexible, so you can bend it to reach watering areas.
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Plan the delivery system you want for each marked area. For example, small areas of low plants and ground cover plants might be watered best by using drip irrigation micro sprays. Individual plants or shrubs can be watered by drip emitters or drippers set along the tubing lines. Larger plants need drippers that put out more water. Check the GPH (gallons per hour) or GPM (gallons per minute) marked on different emitters to choose the right water delivery emitter.
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Buy screw-on manifolds to replace existing sprinkler heads on your watering system. You can find manifolds that take from two to 10 outlets. Slide on ¼ inch tubing that will connect to each outlet of the manifold, allowing you to distribute water to multiple tubing lines.
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Follow your sketch to lay out each line of tubing so you can attach the greatest number of conveniently placed water delivery emitters or spray heads to each marked area. Think of it almost like putting together a Lego set of attachable pieces.
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Run 1/4 inch vinyl tubing by the base of your plants. At the root of each plant you want watered, cut the line and insert an in-line dripper between the two pieces so it reconnects the line like a chain. Try keeping these in-line emitters at least 18 inches apart along the tubing. You can also attach connectors to add branches to your lines. Each line can end in an end cap, an end-line dripper (or emitter) or a micro spray head.
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Build a more elaborate system where a sprinkler head conversion needs to cover a larger area. Instead of using a manifold (which will restrict you to using ¼ inch tubing) use a sprinkler head adapter to attach half inch, 3/8 inch or even one inch flexible tubing as a main line from the converted old sprinkler head to your garden. You can then insert ¼ inch tubing to form branches by plugging it into the larger tubing with straight connectors. Now it’s easy to continue building your drip irrigation system in your garden as described above.
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Tips & Warnings
Large areas of groundcover and lawns are not easily watered with drip irrigation. Replace regular irrigation sprinklers with low volume sprinkler heads instead to water these areas more efficiently.
Resources
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