How To Install A DIY Drip Irrigation System For Potted Plants
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An automatic watering system for outdoor plants makes life easier, and saves you tons of time. IT's also very easy to establis your own, and doesn't take such metre (information technology's totally worth every second!). Follow these relaxed step-by-step operating instructions to install a DIY drip irrigation organization for preserved plants.
We experience an surface area behind our menage that gets full sun that I always thought would exist unbroken for growth, but it's under the eaves of the house so it doesn't get much rain.
My economise put off a couple of pots of peppers in that respect last year, but hand-watering entirely of those pots became a major chore in the heat of the summer. We were in a drought last year, so we had to manually water these pots a few times a day. Not fun!
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My conserve told me atomic number 2 wanted to line of work the area with pots of peppers this year, and so we definite to add a dribble irrigation system of rules to make watering our container plants easy.
IT turns out, putting in a DIY drip system for potted plants is just as acuminate as IT was to add overhead sprinklers to our atmospheric phenomenon.
Asset we had some of the poly tube left over from that project, so we were able to use that for this project – bonus!
Installing drip irrigation system for potted plants
What Is A Drip Irrigation System?
Think of a drip irrigation system arsenic an automatic watering system for pots and containers. It hooks right into your garden hose or faucet so when IT turns on, all of your pots volition beget watered at the same time.
You could sour the body of water on manually, or set it up on an automatic timer to create a self-tearing system for potted plants (hope ME, a timer is totally worth it, and it's not very expensive to bargain yourself one!).
Benefits Of Installing DIY Drip Irrigation For Containers
Installing a drip water system for potted plants has lots of benefits to you, and to your plants. The of import benefit is convenience, and have ME tell you, an automatic drip irrigation system makes container gardening Much easier!
Not only do self-lacrimation pots make your life easier, but it's better for your plants too, and ensures they're acquiring exactly the right amount of moisture.
Consonant lachrymation not only keeps your potted plants happy and healthy, IT also helps to prevent problems equivalent blossom end rot.
Healthy plants have inferior problems with pests and diseases, and produce TONS more yummy food for us? What's non to love?
Drip Irrigation Kit out For Potted Plants
Depending on how many potted plants you have, a drip irrigation kit up might comprise all you'll involve ready to install your entire organization.
You can buy a smaller kit if you have 8 pots OR less, Beaver State you dismiss acquire a larger kit like this one that will work to mechanically water up to 20 containers.
Drip irrigation kits are a smashing means to bestir oneself, and will let in full instructions for background everything up. Some kits even come with a timer.
Simply keep open in mind that even when you start with a drip irrigation kit, you might smooth demand to buy a few additional parts (for example, most don't come with a pressure regulator). So glucinium sure to read the details of what's included in the kit out.
Roughly contents of a drip irrigation kit for potted plants
Of course, you can as wel make your ain custom drip irrigation system design, which is what we did for our frame-up since we already had the mainline tubing and few strange parts to get us started.
DIY Drip Irrigation Supplies Needed
- Drop irrigation kit (facultative – but if you want to use it to get you started)
- Mainline drip mold irrigation hose (1/2″ poly drip irrigation tubing)
- Drip irrigation backflow preventer
- Garden hose connector (1/2″ faucet fitting)
- Pressure regulator
- Poly tubing end cap
- Irrigation micro tube (1/4″ vinyl)
- Irrigation drippers with spikes, one for for each one pot (we secondhand these 360 academic degree adjustable drippers)
- Drip irrigation hole punch
- Drip origin connectors
- Drop irrigation spikes (1/2″ tubing stakes)
- Drip hose goofball plugs (in case)
- Garden tearing timekeeper for drip irrigation
- Garden hose splitter (optional, comes in handy if you want to fleece up another hosepipe to the same spigot)
- Premature ventricular contraction pipe cutting saw or a PVC cutting instrument (for cutting the thicker tube)
- Tape measure
How To Install Drip Irrigation For Preserved Plants
Step 1: Attach connectors to faucet, hose or spigot – It's easier to surcharge everything in if you attach the connectors to your hose or spigot introductory. So grab the backflow preventer, the pressure regulator, and the spigot hosiery fitting for this stone's throw.
Start by attaching the backflowing preventer onto your hose down or outdoor spigot (it simply screws on). Next, you'll impound the press regulator, and death the faucet fitting (this just screws on too – no tools needed!).
Basically, you'll end up chaining the garden hose attachments together in this exact order (backflow preventer, pressure regulator, faucet fitting).
Drip irrigation hose connectors bespoken to faucet
Step 2: Attach the 1/2″ poly tubing to the hosepipe fitting – Look at one end of your 1/2″ poly mainline tubing, and push IT into the open end of the faucet hose fitting. Once you've pushed it in, pull down the collar on the hose fitting piece, and tighten it to secure the tubing.
You mightiness want to kink the tubing and switch on the piss to make sure in that location's no leaking at this point, differently you can wait to test everything subsequently in step 7.
Attaching poly tubing to faucet hosiery fitting
Step 3: Pattern down your drip irrigation system design – The incoming drip system installation step is to determine how far asunder the drop heads will be, sol you know exactly where to install the micro tube.
Figuring out the drip irrigation innovation sounds hard, but it was actually really easy.
We simply separated out the pots where we wanted them to personify, and then laid down the poly tube hose in front of them (Tip: countenance the tubing sit in the sun for a while to loosen up first, it's easier to lay it flat when it's warm).
Measure spacing between irrigation drippers
Then we measured where each pot was, and marked the poly tubing where we needed to add the drip tube lines for each of the drippers.
Once we measured it every outer, we gashed the tubing at the precise end using victimization our PVC cutting tool (you could usance a PVC piping adage to snub the tubing instead), and caped the tube with the end crest.
Hose down end cap closes forth mainline tubing
Step 4: Digit out how long the drip lines will be – Next we measured how long each piece of the micro tubing needful to embody for the drip mould lines.
That's simply the length from the spot you marked on the mainline tubing, dormie to the spot where the drip mold head will be within the pot.
We added several extra inches to the length of each piece of the small tubing so it would be loose enough to allow elbow room for us to move over the pots around a bit if we wanted to (which we have done, and it works out really recovered).
Measuring small tubing for drip lines
Tone 5: Install the little tubing – It's well-situated to add u the drip lines and the micro sprinkler heads.
For drip line installation, you just punch a hole out in the mainline poly tubing (using the drop irrigation hole punch) where you want to add the drip lines (these are the spots you marked on the tubing in step 3).
Poke holes in drip irrigation tubing to install drippers
Don River't panic if you punch a hole out in the wrong spot. I experience that making a mistake isn't ideal, but if you answer end up punching a trap in the wrong post… well, that's why they have goof plugs! IT's good to have them on hand just in incase.
Next you'll attach the drip line connector first to the mainline tube, so attach the micro tubing dripping hose onto the other end of the connector.
Boom!
Drip irrigation micro tubing connected to mainline hosiery
Step 6: Install the irrigation drippers – Installing the dripper heads is large easy too. You basically just plug them into the open end of the micro tubing, then put them into your container.
Our dripper little heads came with spikes to hold up them in place, so they stay where we put them.
We centered the little heads in each of our pots, honorable to one side of the base of the implant(s). Be careful not to damage any attendant roots Oregon seedlings when you're pushing the irrigation spikes into the stain though.
Instalmen the irrigation drippers
Step 7: Test stunned your irrigation setup – Before burying the mainline, test everything out to make a point it's all working with no leaks. You by all odds don't wishing anything leaking.
At this point information technology's also a good idea to adjust the drip heads. The tops of the heads flex so you can ensure the amount of water that comes knocked out.
We adjusted each ane to make a point they weren't spraying open-air the pots, and that they were all working correctly.
Micro heads for drip irrigation
Step 8: Secure the poly tubing – One time everything was installed and tested, we secured the mainline tubing into the ground with some 1/2″ drip irrigation tube bet.
The stakes clip onto the mainline tube, which makes securing it unhurried. Then we simply buried the tube in the mulch to give it a cleaner look.
Trickle irrigation spikes hold poly tubing in place
Note, you tush install your poly tubing behind your pots rather than in front of them like we did here. That way, the micro tubing wish run up the backs of the pots, and North Korean won't be so obvious.
But it'll work simply fine either way. (We just installed ours in front to go far easier to take photos for you)
Buried the main irrigation tubing
Step 9: Set the timer for automatic irrigation – Last, we set our hose down timer to keep going a schedule so we ne'er take up to worry about tearing these pots again (which is especially nice spell we're on vacation!).
Once your automated drip irrigation system is running, I recommend checking happening your pots on a regular basis to make sure they are getting the right amount of piddle. Then you can adjust your timer consequently to get it just right.
We'll deform the drip irrigation timer off when we buzz off a lot of rain, and growth the length, or how often the drippers run during teetotal periods or hot spells.
Garden hosiery timer for drip irrigation system
Not only is this DIY drip irrigations organization great thusly we don't feature to piss these pots, but it makes it much easier to control our peppers and tomatoes are acquiring a consistent amount of water.
Hopefully this will assistanc prevent bloom end rot, which was a problem for our container full-grown peppers last year. Trickle irrigation systems are great for preserved plants, as well as the garden.
Self-watering container garden
Installment drip irrigation for potted plants is hastate, and doesn't take much time. (It will actually destruction up saving you a ton of clock and effort!) I know it seems like there are a good deal of steps involved with drop irrigation installation, but trust Pine Tree State IT really is very easy to coiffe! Believe ME, if I can get along information technology, anyone can!
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More Container Gardening Posts
- How To Make Potting Soil For Containers (with recipe!)
- Container Horticulture Design Tips & Ideas
- How To Fertilize Open-air Potted Plants & Containers
- Choosing The Best Potting Soil Mix For Container Gardening
Share your tips and experiences for installing a DIY drip irrigation system of rules in the comments section down the stairs.
https://getbusygardening.com/easy-drip-irrigation-system/
Source: https://getbusygardening.com/easy-drip-irrigation-system/
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