How to Irrigate Container Gardens with Dripperline

[@MsLookinup]

I have been hand watering my gardens for years and loved watching you put everything for drip irrigation together. It is really helpful to see how straightforward it is. I will be doing this next year for my more water loving veggies as it is getting physically difficult to carry on as I have been. Thanks so much!!

[@padroooo]

I am a beginner in drip irriagation and appreciate your video series on the subject. I wish you well.

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Thanks for the nice comment, good luck with your projects and happy gardening!

[@chroniclereport]

Wowsers! I've been looking high and low to find a solution for my water system and BOOM! This video showed up. Bruh, thank you!

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Excellent, hope things are going well for you! good luck :)

[@waldorules7725]

I feel like we have 1 million plants in the ground and so many pots. Most in the ground are hooked up to drips, but many of the pots have not been and we have always depended on friends to come over and water while we are gone. I am finally, getting pots hooked up to drip and some of the pots are very small so I’m just using like half gallon emitters on those and some are bubblers which I’m not super crazy about but you can kind of control the output. I’m curious how long do you run your drips to your pots? All of our pots are ornamental plants so a variety of sizes and I can’t imagine running a tiny pot for an hour on a drip. Just curious how long you run your drips to your pots and can that shut off valve be used to just maybe cut back a little bit and just not have it fully open? Thanks a bunch!! 🪴🪴🪴🪴

[@castenseth]

Excellent!! Done a lot of irritation over the years but learned a few new tricks. Thanks! It is hard to sometimes connect the small lines so I find if a use a lighter and heat the line for just a second the connector fittings slide right in! Works well especially since I have some arthritis in mind hands!🤣

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Glad it was helpful, I keep a heat gun in the irrigation box just for this purpose, I used to keep a lighter in there but it kept exploding!

[@purpleduckboy]

My existing system has so many problems I'm going to redo it all. Thanks for the info, it helps understand how to cope with the desert environment

[@xiuletian9143]

I watched all your Drip Irrigation system videos, very helpful, thank you!

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Glad you like them, thank you so much!

[@debbybaca4989]

All of your videos are super helpful and explained what I needed and why, and how to install in a clear way. Thank you! I am no longer intimidated to set something up in my yard.

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Awesome, you got this!

[@robertnachman6376]

Found all these tutorials super helpful, thank you!

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Thanks, always happy to help!

[@parmbirdhaliwal6311]

I want to make one for containers with gravity feeding . Your is the best one I ever seen

[@parmbirdhaliwal6311]

You are a genius . Thanks for your innovation .

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

You are most welcome

[@SkiKat-USA]

Very nice! I learned a lot and esp. enjoyed the bullseye pattern. Now I know how to duplicate it.

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Wonderful!

[@adeleroblin1656]

Excellent. Thank you!

[@tmorrison5965]

could you run the emitter tubing in a spiral and then goof plug the end?

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Yes, Definitely!

[@erich1394]

Do you ever mess with inline emitters? I've seen some comments on here talking about how there's pretty big lead times right now for dripline, which matches my experience - totally impossible to get dripline delivered prior to July right now. We have a bunch of containers (~200ish) and I was hoping I could approximate the method shown here using inline drippers on regular spaghetti tubing. I guess I'd rather install 800 drippers in early June instead of installing 200 driplines in July! Aside from the huge difference in labor, do you know of any significant functional differences or problems that would affect affect inline drippers vs dripline? Any advantages? Thanks again for the awesome series - you are our primary source of drip irrigation knowledge.

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Thank erich for the great questions. I agree the method in this video might be a little too cumbersome for that many pots. One major issue you're going to run into if you run individual drippers to each pot is that drip emitters aren't really effective at watering containers, they tend to concentrate all of the water in one area. Instead I would recommend a "Spray stake" set up which uses an emitter attached to a spray stake that spreads the water more evenly across the container. Berry Hill Irrigation sells the whole set up including the emitter, microtubing, and spray stake all included and you can buy as many as you want. The spray stake also works as a plug so you can shut off individual pots without the need for valves. This set up works well when trying to water long lines of containers, like in a nursery situation. Good Luck! www.berryhilldrip.com/Netafim-PCNL-Spray-Stakes-and-Assemblies.html

[@erich1394]

@@SouthwestVictoryGardens Thanks again for the prompt reply and solid advice! We were hoping to prevent evaporation via cardboard mulch / installing the drippers underneath. Our climate is somewhat different than yours, but we're still looking at clear skies, around 45% humidity, 90-100 degrees F during most of the growing season. Do you think a deeper layer of a more permeable mulch would allow us to get away with the spray stakes while still keeping evaporation down provided we're setting the timer to water at sunrise when it's cooler? Again - your channel is amazing and I'm super thankful for your replies. Thanks for knocking down those barriers to entry for newcomers - just watched your fertilizer video and we're looking forward to mixing up our own batch soon!

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

you don't really need a thick mulch layer to get a good benefit. I like alfalfa hay mulch, it breaks down into a good fertilizer over time and is permeable. You only need a 2" or 3" layer to get good results.

[@dkburruss]

Thanks!! Is there a limit to how much 1/2 in tubing you can run off one hose bib?

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Hi Della! Yes, it would depend on how much water pressure you are getting from your timer, but with typical irrigation systems using 20-40psi pressure regulators the longest you can run 1/2" poly is about 180-200 ft. before you would start to lose pressure in you emitters. If you are using emitters that all have the same drip rate, or using dripperline, you can run the tubing longer and just run the timer for a longer duration to account for the drop in water pressure. Good luck!

[@jimandelizabethgrubb2536]

Can you attach dripper tube to a drip line? I have a pot in my garden that I need to get water to, but all I have in the garden is a drip line.

[@dianetsang643]

Is there a maximum length to how long the 1/4 in tubing can be extended to without affecting the water output?

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

if you're using dripper line, you can run 18' from one side with out using pressure, you can run 36' if you connect the line on both sides to a main water source. Good Luck!

[@siduong7656]

Can I run the drip line like the spiral way instead of making 2 circles for the big pots?

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Yes, of course!

[@smallspaceswithGloria]

That was my question also, thank you.

[@ddm220]

can i adjust water pressure with the plastic faucet that comes in kits ? I want to connect to yard sprinkler system with high pressure.

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

You might be able to but I wouldn't risk it, even a small amount of pressure can bust the fittings out and you'll have leaks. Good Luck!

[@roseinaugustaga-zone8a-gia631]

Now I know why the fittings keep busting out that made me feel crazy this afternoon, thank you !

[@debbiem2146]

I have always watered by hand my raised bed garden - which takes a minimum over an hour each day! So I'm truly ready to delve in the mysteries of drip irrigation. My question is this: how does the 6" emitter spacing work for closely planted root veg such as carrots, parsnips and beets? The first two veg are 4" apart all around (4" rows, 4' between each plant) . Does the drip spread enough through soil to reach everything? (I guess I should ask how area does each drip emitter spread to?) Thank your the great information - subscribed!

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

Depending on the size of your container, you might need to add more rings to get better coverage. Water will spread as it sinks down but when planting seeds you might want to hand water the surface of the containers until everything sprouts, after that the drip should be enough. You can also look into "spray stakes" which are effective at watering containers with more water coverage of the surface of the soil. I really like the plum spray stake and tubing assembly from berry hill irrigation: www.berryhilldrip.com/Netafim-PCNL-Spray-Stakes-and-Assemblies.html

[@debbiem2146]

@@SouthwestVictoryGardens Thank you for your advice and the links - it's much appreciated!

[@enigmaticreverieproduction5169]

How long do you run the drip line for.

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

I adjust the timer constantly throughout the year, typically about 1x a day or so in the summer and about every 7- 10 days in the winter. When I run the system I run from 15-30 minutes depending on the soil in the containers. Hope that helps!

[@vdog570]

I really like using 1/4 drip line, I would like to try the first set up for a few 5 gal containers but do I need the valve? Or can I just run 1/4 from main line to each plant? Thanks

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

The valve is definitely not at all necessary. Having a valve in the dripper line allows for a little more flexibility in your watering but by no means is it required, for sure you can run a line direct to your plants without a valve with no problems. If you're gonna be using 5 gallon buckets, you should try converting a few into self watering containers, those do really great in desert climates. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaq0mmljmrB3p9k

[@pianielsen1362]

I have a distance of approx 60ft from hose spigot to some plants. Do you think its alright to run tubing that far? I will be burrowing it because it is across my dirt driveway.

[@SouthwestVictoryGardens]

I believe you can run 1/2" poly tube about 300 feet or so without experiencing any issues with a drop in pressure. of course any drastic elevation changes might effect that but a 60ft. run shouldn't be an issue.

[@pianielsen1362]

@@SouthwestVictoryGardens thank you!

[@carolynsteele-pv1ls]

Everything you did was hidden behind your back or a plant…couldn’t follow.

[@SandyFischler]

Right? Completely useless to learn from.

[@phylliscole9456]

Cant see all that youre doing

[@shellsdbnsherryl]

Where is the talking. His mouth is moving but only music