How to Install Drip Line Irrigation
Watering your garden can become a tedious chore on a daily basis. If you have created a potted garden on your porch or you have planted many individual plants in your landscaping, you can configure and create a drip system that will irrigate everything in your yard. A drip system is made from poly tubing, and a variety of drip heads, bubblers, or sprayer heads attached directly to the tubing. Create the drip system from bare tubing by punching a hole in the tubing and inserting a drip emitter anywhere you need a drip for a plant. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Pressure reducer
- Tubing adapter
- Tubing punch
- Drip emitter
- ½-inch poly tubing
- ¼-inch poly tubing
- End cap
- Goof plugs
- Bug plugs
- Timer
Instructions
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1
Measure the area for your drip system from the water faucet, the path the tubing will take, and from the tubing to each individual plant. Design your drip system on paper. This will give you an idea of how much tubing to buy and save you a lot of time in the long run. Take the design with you to the hardware store.
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Screw the pressure reducer directly to the faucet. The pressure reducer will regulate the pressure so your drip system will not be damaged when the water turns on. Screw the adapter to the pressure reducer and insert the 1/2-inch tubing supply into the other end. The adapter attaches the drip system tubing to the water supply. Stretch the 1/2-inch tubing across the area where your drip system will go. Cut the tubing to size and use an end plug to plug the cut end.
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3
Make a hole in the 1/2-inch tubing at each watering location of your design, using a tubing punch. Insert a drip emitter into the hole until you hear it snap into place. If you need to get the water closer to the plant or pot, insert the end of the 1/4-inch tubing on the drip emitter and run the tubing to the pot and cut to size. Insert a bug plug on the other end of the 1/4-inch tubing. The bug plug will keep bugs from entering the tubing but allow the water to drip out.
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Insert a goof plug to plug up the hole if you punched it in the wrong place in the tubing, and punch the new hole in the proper place.
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Attach the timer to your faucet and set the run times for your drip system.
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Tips & Warnings
All the drip system parts are rated on the package with a GPH number (gallon per hour). Take a 5-gallon bucket to the faucet that will be your drip system water supply. Open the tap all the way with the bucket under the faucet. Time the water flow for one minute and shut the water off. Measure how much water is in the bucket after one minute and multiply it by 60 to get your GPH number. Remember that number when shopping for your parts.
There are many way to configure your drip system with many drip system parts. Ask for help at the hardware store.
Use caution when working with the punch for it is sharp and can puncture a finger easily.
