Too much emphasis on watering. Need to learn how to water by hand once a week and stop all this concentration on systems and the cost thereof.

If you have raised beds and any sort of porous soil, it is difficult to see how water would pond for very long, I don't think drowning is going to be an issue.
You installed valves and you are using them, so I'm not sure what the issue is.

After getting in touch with the retailer it turns out that I was recommended the wrong drippers. The 2GPH are to be used for sandy soil. They immediately shipped me out 40 new 0.5 GPH drippers at no charge. It should only take me a few minutes to swap them out.

The valves that I installed should only be used to turn on/off the water supply to each pair of drippers, not to regulate flow. When I install the new drippers hopefully I will get the expected watering rate.

Im in NJ as well, and my raised beds only require watering every other day or so (if that) during the hot season... I do have poly lines running to all the beds with mini sprinklers/drippers, but they are not automated as there is no need to water that often. I water deeply as needed, not on a consistent basis. The poly lines and sprinlker set up is just to make it easier than standing there for hours with a hose and to minimize overhead watering.

An automated system may be of use on containers that would dry out while you were at work or something, but should not be needed on your raised beds unless you were to go on vacation and not be around (or have a helper) to water them.

howelbama, I think I may have misled you into thinking I'm going fully automated. My plan is to only water when needed using a two hour timer instead of standing in the garden and doing each plant one at a time.

This way I can relax on my patio and sip a cold one instead of pounding one, while my veggies are sipping on the water instead of having to pound it. That's just my analogy.

The new timer I have does just that, and in fact can be programmed to water while I am away on vacation. I can tell it how many days between waterings and how long. I originally got the wrong timer (I've returned it since) that waters several times a day in very small time increments.

The only issue (for this season) is that if on vacation I have to find a way to keep the hose off my lawn so I don't ruin it. Next year my plan is to run PVC underground from my hose area to my garden.

Ah, gotcha... I use the dripper stakes in the link below scattered throughout my beds. the are easy to move around, and can be "dialed" from 0 GPH up to 10 GPH.

I leave them on full 10 GPH for the most part.

Here is a link that might be useful: dripper stakes

I saw those adjustable ones when I was in HD put couldn't find the "staked" version, only those that you insert directly into the 1/2" poly hose. I even checked Lowes as well.

Basically my system is pieced together with 1/2" tubing/elbows/tees from HD, shut off valves from Lowes, and drip lines and staked drippers from DripDepot.com.

Got any pics of your setup?

I'll take a few when I get home this evening and post them. They usually stock them at the HDs and Lowes down this way, but they are sometimes tough to find on the shelves and the price of the ones in store is no where near as good as the 100 pack they offer online.

On a side note, you may want to check your Lowes for frost blankets, I picked up a bunch at the Eatontown store ( 10ft by 12ft dupont brand) that were marked down from 16 bucks a piece to $3.50... came in handy the night before last... don't know if they'll have them by you, but worth a look. I'm sure I will be making more use of them this fall...

Njitgrad, here is a pic of the manifold. I'm breaking it out to couple more zones soon. If you click the picture it should take you out to my photobucket... I snapped a few shots of the dripper stakes throughout my raised beds and in ground plantings. The containers in the pics are modified to be raised beds by cutting the bottoms out and burying an inch or two of the container.

The filter in the pic is to remove any chlorine from the supply, it's probably not needed, but it was cheap enough to do.
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