You make a very good case for using the industrial timers like HUNTER. What would a install look like for a raised bed garden using main line and dripper lines using the valves that typically are connected to PVC pipe that typically are used to run lawn sprinklers???? The cost is not prohibitive and the rain sensors that can be added are extremely attractive. Thanks! The big box home centers use timers that have hose connections and as you say--in my experience--- need frequent replacement.
Marty, I'm not completely clear on your question but I believe you're saying you'd like to install a drip system in a raised bed connected to standard sprinkler valves and a professional grade timer/controller, yes? If so, you can see different setups in my Drip Playlist but specifically in the one called Connecting Drip Systems to Irrigation Valves and Faucets. Let me know in a new comment thread if this helped.
Thank you for the informative video. I'd love to see you actually set up a line with the black tubing and then connect the techline to it. It seems several of your parts of the video just showed the black tubing and I didn't see any techline off of it. If you have a long stretch of black tubing, and need several techlines off of it for several plants along the route, are you not using one long line of black tubing and instead using sections of black tubing, connected together with the conversion T every where you need to add in a Techline section for a plant? Is there any time you can simply use the rainbird conversion kit with the brown T and run the techline straight off that or is that only if you have a short distance and just a plant or two? I guess I'm trying to figure out why/when to use the black tubing and then have the techline coming off of it- just a cost savings doing so (assuming techline isn't cheap) and/or you want to only target specific plants and don't want to water anywhere else (I live in the forest so watering all the area inbetween where I've planted native plants wouldn't be a bad thing for the already existing natives) or are there other reasons? Hopefully my questions make sense. :) Thank you!
I use the black tubing as a distribution line and then tee off of it with the transition fittings and Techline. In the case of this video I had A section of Techline around each fruit tree and plant. You can see the Techline transitioned and laid down at 3:39 and 5:39. Yes, sometimes I am fortunate enough to be able to run the Techline directly off of the RB Retro kit but it all has to do with where the Retro kit gets installed.
You noted that it's better to install techline above ground. How may I do that if I have grass in my orchard? Just much the orchard and remove the grass? Thank you Sprinkler Pro.
When you say grass, do you mean like a lawn that is ornamental and you mow it? If you're irrigating the grass/lawn with sprinklers then it's questionable whether a drip system is even necessary for the orchard. Let me know.
Hi Sprinkler Pro - I have dumb question. I have a 6-zone sprinkler system, a small orchard of 8 fruit trees, 2 fledgling blueberry bushes, and flower beds. Do I need to add a separate drip irrigation zone to the system, then use the black line to bring water to the orchard, and distribute using techline to each fruit tree/bush, flower bed, etc? If no, I'll rewatch both videos, thank you.
I have a rock garden with six hunter 4” pop up spray heads that I want to convert to a drip system with the 1800 conversion kit you used in this video. I planned on doing 4 of the 6 sprinklers with conversion kits but do I have to cap off all of the pop ups that I don’t convert to drip ? Two of the sprinklers I kind of count on for watering a specific corner of the lawn so I’d prefer to keep them intact. Do you think this will pose an issue ? Thanks in advance
The only issue with not capping the sprinklers is the run time issue. Rule of thumb is 10 mins. for std. popups and 30 mins. for drip tubing with Techline or std. drip emitters. Rule of thumb for drip sprays is 10 mins. See my video called _The 3 main types of drip_ to get an explanation.
Just curious, why don’t you like to bury the drip line like under a few inches of dirt/mulch? Is it because of the risk of the emitters getting clogged if so, is the Hunter Eco -drip a good solution for this? It has some kind of mesh sock to prevent debris. I was thinking bearing the drip line would make it look better aesthetically.
Yes, drip tubing LOOKS nicer UNSEEN but then you can't see it so you can't inspect it or the emitters AND you can't see it so your shovels will slice through it AND the roots of trees and shrubs will swallow it and pinch it off. Keeping it above grade will solve all those potential issues. I just dealt with these things on a job this morning.
Thanks for the very informative information. It’s helped me tremendously.
You're very welcome!
You make a very good case for using the industrial timers like HUNTER. What would a install look like for a raised bed garden using main line and dripper lines using the valves that typically are connected to PVC pipe that typically are used to run lawn sprinklers???? The cost is not prohibitive and the rain sensors that can be added are extremely attractive. Thanks! The big box home centers use timers that have hose connections and as you say--in my experience--- need frequent replacement.
Marty, I'm not completely clear on your question but I believe you're saying you'd like to install a drip system in a raised bed connected to standard sprinkler valves and a professional grade timer/controller, yes? If so, you can see different setups in my Drip Playlist but specifically in the one called Connecting Drip Systems to Irrigation Valves and Faucets. Let me know in a new comment thread if this helped.
Great info! Thanks Tom!
John, Thanks!
Thank you for the informative video. I'd love to see you actually set up a line with the black tubing and then connect the techline to it. It seems several of your parts of the video just showed the black tubing and I didn't see any techline off of it. If you have a long stretch of black tubing, and need several techlines off of it for several plants along the route, are you not using one long line of black tubing and instead using sections of black tubing, connected together with the conversion T every where you need to add in a Techline section for a plant? Is there any time you can simply use the rainbird conversion kit with the brown T and run the techline straight off that or is that only if you have a short distance and just a plant or two? I guess I'm trying to figure out why/when to use the black tubing and then have the techline coming off of it- just a cost savings doing so (assuming techline isn't cheap) and/or you want to only target specific plants and don't want to water anywhere else (I live in the forest so watering all the area inbetween where I've planted native plants wouldn't be a bad thing for the already existing natives) or are there other reasons? Hopefully my questions make sense. :) Thank you!
I use the black tubing as a distribution line and then tee off of it with the transition fittings and Techline. In the case of this video I had A section of Techline around each fruit tree and plant. You can see the Techline transitioned and laid down at 3:39 and 5:39. Yes, sometimes I am fortunate enough to be able to run the Techline directly off of the RB Retro kit but it all has to do with where the Retro kit gets installed.
You noted that it's better to install techline above ground. How may I do that if I have grass in my orchard? Just much the orchard and remove the grass? Thank you Sprinkler Pro.
When you say grass, do you mean like a lawn that is ornamental and you mow it? If you're irrigating the grass/lawn with sprinklers then it's questionable whether a drip system is even necessary for the orchard. Let me know.
Hi Sprinkler Pro - I have dumb question. I have a 6-zone sprinkler system, a small orchard of 8 fruit trees, 2 fledgling blueberry bushes, and flower beds. Do I need to add a separate drip irrigation zone to the system, then use the black line to bring water to the orchard, and distribute using techline to each fruit tree/bush, flower bed, etc? If no, I'll rewatch both videos, thank you.
It would be optimum to have a separate line to the fruit trees as they will have different watering needs than the other things but it's not critical.
I have a rock garden with six hunter 4” pop up spray heads that I want to convert to a drip system with the 1800 conversion kit you used in this video. I planned on doing 4 of the 6 sprinklers with conversion kits but do I have to cap off all of the pop ups that I don’t convert to drip ? Two of the sprinklers I kind of count on for watering a specific corner of the lawn so I’d prefer to keep them intact. Do you think this will pose an issue ? Thanks in advance
The only issue with not capping the sprinklers is the run time issue. Rule of thumb is 10 mins. for std. popups and 30 mins. for drip tubing with Techline or std. drip emitters. Rule of thumb for drip sprays is 10 mins. See my video called _The 3 main types of drip_ to get an explanation.
Just curious, why don’t you like to bury the drip line like under a few inches of dirt/mulch? Is it because of the risk of the emitters getting clogged if so, is the Hunter Eco -drip a good solution for this? It has some kind of mesh sock to prevent debris. I was thinking bearing the drip line would make it look better aesthetically.
Yes, drip tubing LOOKS nicer UNSEEN but then you can't see it so you can't inspect it or the emitters AND you can't see it so your shovels will slice through it AND the roots of trees and shrubs will swallow it and pinch it off. Keeping it above grade will solve all those potential issues. I just dealt with these things on a job this morning.