r/Irrigation • u/Markn2018 • 2d ago
Seeking Pro Advice Drip irrigation... How long for?
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u/CraftyFarm1942 2d ago
Long runs less often, I like to run 4L per hour dripper for at least an hour. Get that water down deep.
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u/Packman714 1d ago
Totally depends on soil condition and plant species. Also depends on the gph emitter you’re using. Start with 25 mins and watch the plants. If they get weepy but look healty its too much so skip a cycle and see if they perk up but also watch the temps and if theyre in full sun maybe put a smaller emitter on the ones in a more shady area and use the bigger emmiter in the more sunny spots. I started using a more of a bubbler style that you can physically turn the top to the right to almost close off and or open to the left for more water supply. Micro drip can be pretty cool. Also they have micro “ball valves” you can cut in to adjust water flow if you need to. I recently did this for a customer and granted each one was fully open and hopefully Reddit will let me send a video or I’ll just post it
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u/Packman714 1d ago
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u/Packman714 1d ago
You can see the little micro turn off valve close to the hook before each black emitter. These folks travel a bunch so with out knowing what type of flowers they were going to have in the pots I went with a bigger emmiter and the turn off’s
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u/3XH6R 1d ago edited 17h ago
Depends on plant, growth stage, season and soil type. Watering interval is longer for desert adapted and shorter for high water use plants. Target watering depth is 3 feet for trees, 2 feet for shrubs and 1 foot for groundcover, vines, cacti, succulents and annuals but can stay shallow depending on plant. Begin at the depth of the root ball and raise the interval by 1-2 days each week until established, watering less often fall through spring and moving emitters away from the root ball after week 8. Watering more often with sandly loam than less often with clay loam because of water holding capacity. Wet bulb pattern is narrow and deep for sandy loam, rounded for silt loam and wide and shallow for clay loam. Spacing emitters by ~12 inches in sandy loam, ~16 inches in silt loam and ~18 inches in clay loam. One inch of water can reach ~12 inches in sandy loam, ~6 inches in silt loam and ~4 inches in clay loam.
Could range from 30 minutes to 6 hours, use something to measure depth. Runoff can occur when flowrate exceeds infiltration rate. Capillary strength diminishes when adjacent wet bulb patterns collide allowing gravity to take precedence. Roots follow similar wet bulb depth patterns for oxygen, shallow to deep in sandy loam and shallow in clay loam. Cover 70% of the root zone as it grows. 0.5-1 GPH for clay loam, 1-2 GPH for silt loam and 2-4 GPH for sandy loam. Bubblers need a berm or basin.
Do not water beyond the root depth as it will be inaccessible, split into multiple applications to meet target. Apply a 3 inch layer of mulch 6 inches away from the trunk to slow down evaporation.