How Long Are You Supposed to Run a Drip Irrigation System?

[@paulndungu8001]

Soil water holding capacity particulary field capacity is what we use mostly. Good show sir.

[@DripDepotAdam]

Field capacity, you must do some pretty big projects, which is awesome. And thank you for the kind words, I hope you have a great weekend! :)

[@gangirin]

soil moisture meter....thats the best advice , thank you....if we know the moisture level, easy to adjust what ever frequency we need to water and the quantity we need to do

[@dripdepot]

You got it exactly right! A quick tip for using those soil moisture meters -- you have to push it in a little deeper than what you'd think. Just the tip and you won't get a reading, so don't hesitate to sink it in reasonably deep like we did in the video :)

[@CastBlastCamp]

Great info, most certainly a topic that needs discussed amongst the drip community. For my veggies & herbs I usually go anywhere from 30mins to at most 1.5 hours every 2-4 days depending on rain and heat in the local area. Hope all is well out your way Adam, stay safe!

[@dripdepot]

Sam, thank you for the feedback there! Having the specific times you use is very helpful (anyone else reading this, don't hesitate to let us know in the comments cycles you've had success with). I think the longest cycles I've had were when I was doing an hour in the morning and an hour at night, during the hottest part of summer and when the plants were fruiting. That may have been a bit longer than I needed, as the next year I dropped it down and the plants did just as well.

[@wolfgangwunschel-b4p]

always prof. top content here i see! - there might be even a formula for calculating the ideal amount considering the air temperatures, too...

[@southerntulip799]

Thank you for your professional advice. There are definitely many variables and some to which I would have never thought of. (Neighbor cut down his tree next door allowing more sun exposure resulting in drying out medium) I am currently trying to figure out how to calculate gph for my set up.

[@dripdepot]

You're very welcome! And definitely bummer about the tree, but you have it exactly right as that will influence the water cycle duration :). If you don't already have any there, a layer of mulch can help retain a little more moisture too. If any questions come up, don't hesitate to drop a line, happy to help!

[@wolfgangwunschel-b4p]

i'd say each drop represents a certain water volume to be counted, so the amount of daily drops gives us some idea about the irrigation done in any spot (would have to build drop counters such as canns put under the dripper for knowing the amount of water that came out) because it's not so much the time it's running automatically each time that counts due to individual quantities of water released by each dripper (some to be adjusted even individually!). soil & air temperature affects a lot due to evaporation - so we should cover the soil always by mulch: f.e. on a 36ºc day, soil surface is measured 70ºc w/o mulch (next morning still 32ºc!). the humidity meter reflects roots' effort to drink the water in a certain depth (lasts 20min. until readings are valid). we variate the automates watering time by 10 - 200% percentage adjustment.

[@wolfgangwunschel-b4p]

since we garden in a moderate summer hot climate, we suffer heat waves of more than 40ºc any summer, so i programmed 5x/day watering of variable duration for 2 - 10min. each time.

[@dripdepot]

Mulches definitely maximise moisture retention -- in regards to the drop counter, you could probably time how many drops come out over a given interval (10 seconds, 60 seconds, etc) then multiply that by run time. The drippers in most systems will be consistent in regards to how many drops they put out so it would be fairly accurate I think.

[@mikeorood1975]

Awesome info. Thanks

[@richard9827]

I haven’t found a video from you talking about watering to ensure germination. In my raised beds I’ll have cucumbers and peas, etc. I’m assuming that I should start with sprayers but would like some guidance. If you have please link. You are a great teacher Cheers

[@dripdepot]

Richard, I saw you'd emailed us today and we'll absolutely get some information over to you :) And we do have a seed starting video coming! It might not make it in time for your beds, but we got it all filmed and now it's in the queue to be edited -- you're off to a great start considering sprayers. A nice gentle spray to moisten the soil is exactly what seeds want. One of my colleagues will be getting back to your email any moment from now, and when they do, you're welcome to reply with any and all follow-up questions -- with that said, you're absolutely on the right track :)

[@wolfgangwunschel-b4p]

i'm about to convert a good part of my watering system to drop blumat as an option working w/ rain water gravity fed (drought periods hose fed into the elevated deposits of course) solarpumping it up to the roofs from the rain capture deposits. reasons: 1. large scale use of rain (each cubic m worth about 1$!), 2. posible watering restrictions due to drought soon , 3. more even soil humidity due to sensor valves, 4. keeps on working some while even w/o water supply from the tap due to mancommunity failure (green beans price up to 9€/kg after maroc. earthquake!)

[@dripdepot]

As always, great comment Wolfgang -- if you don't mind me asking, where are you located that's going through drought conditions? The reason I ask is we're located in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon) and have experienced similar conditions in the last few years. This year was better, but not enough to alleviate drought. I think setups like yours are going to become more common due to droughts like this worldwide. Great info in your comment, a sincere thank you!

[@wolfgangwunschel-b4p]

we moved to navarre, spain 'cause i saw it coming 2 decades ago already when i left our practice in €medklinik. the weather is how they want it to by their chemtrails & so on (wetteradler, yt detailed explications for no misunderstandings recently or dr. dietrich klinghardt): evidence is trying a magnet on the dust fallen on cars etc. or see the ''inexplainable'' huge aluminium concentration in soils even in far away mountain ranges...@@dripdepot

[@wolfgangwunschel-b4p]

i also suggest saving water making use of the capillary action of the soil: watering it for a short time first, the clay & so on grows soaked by water, afterwards it needs less water in 2. watering run because less water escapes in deeper layers compared to watering all at once. i programmed 5 starts a day, which leaves an autonomy of about 10 days for rechargeable 9v 300mAh batteries for about 100 openings/closings of 2 solenoids. with a 24v AC system there'd be no need of saving batteries f.e. i connected by hose by passes 5 sectors making them 2 only, so the working pressure dropped also from 3 bar to less, which i consider favourable: drops running slowlier allowing soil to soak itself easier i guess. we have some testimonies from greenhouses, where they save 90% of water w/ blumat system maintaining always same soil moisture. (works only w/ aprox. same weight pressure of water tank not getting too empty which makes recalibration necessary, fresh nights about 5ºc also tighten the membrane for a while reducing its capacity to close the valve)

[@dripdepot]

Fully agreed on making use of the capillary action Wolfgang! I see a lot of "grid" systems out there, but they generally cost more for no real benefit since water (beneath the soil) is going to travel a good distance anyway (except in the sandiest of soils). I like your approach to your watering cycles, I might have to try that -- right now I do two watering cycles, but I think your approach of doing a very short one first is a great idea. Thank you for that!

[@steelhorses2004]

If you used hose or tape with 6"spaced emitters vs 12" spacing would that mean half the watering time needed and possibly better coverage?

[@dripdepot]

Great question! Just like in the video, there's no one answer, but you're definitely on the right track. In most cases (except perhaps for very loose soil), 6" spacing will lead to shorter run times. The coverage wouldn't necessarily be better (it would in loose soil) but would have a lot of overlap with nearby drippers (which leads to shorter run times). In common, loamy garden soil, water will spread about 12" from the point of drip, so the water from one dripper will usually make it to the edge of water from another dripper. This all happens beneath the surface of the soil -- for those new to drip, the small wet spot on top can lead to feeling like there's not enough water being delivered since we're so used to seeing the entire surface covered. If you have 12", dig around in the soil after a watering cycle and see how far the water is spreading. If it's dense soil, it might even go further than 12". :)

[@joyhamilton4248]

We have almost all sand for our soil so we have to run our system longer.

[@dripdepot]

Yep, exactly that! Thank you for your comment, it helps show how it is different for every location (even when growing the same plants). For sandy soils, longer run times are usually called for -- higher flow emitters can also help engage the capillary action of sandy soil types :)

[@wolfgangwunschel-b4p]

so w/ sand it's exactly the opposite of clay soil, which has to grow/expand slowly by low dripping irrigation for keeping water instead of escaping into lower levels !@@dripdepot

[@dripdepot]

@@wolfgangwunschel-b4p Good point right here -- if water gets below the root level it's not doing the plants much good :)

[@thomaswallis3504]

Blah, blah, blah. For the average gardener this is a waste of time. Most of what you said was no duh. The only useful thing you described was your soil evaluation. Spot on... When people ask how long, they're looking for a rule of thumb answer.

[@dripdepot]

Unfortunately there are too many variables go with a simple "rule of thumb", not the least of which is plant type -- with the very wide variety of geographical locations (think, growing in Arizona versus growing in Montana) that are gardening, there cannot be any type of single answer. It would certainly be nice, and if considering a single plant (tomatoes or similar) perhaps at least a starting point could be considered. The actual rule of thumb is to water and watch -- pick a watering cycle and monitor the health of the plants. They'll let you know :)