You can get drip tape which will water rows or you can install a system with drip lines to each plant or use a combination of both. The idea behind a drip system is to get water directly to the plants and not keep the entire bed wet.

Agree. Drip systems aren't intended to water the whole bed but each individual plant. But they do have a wide variety of different type heads available depending on the crop.

So it is the heads you change from drippers to sprayers when direct seeding in rows or patches. A series of fan spray heads would water a row of carrots for example.

Personally I think drip tape would work better for a bed that size. Look for 4" or 6" on center drip tape rather than the standard 8". Soaker hose is another option.

Dave

Ah ok....so I have some leftover 3/4 tube from installing my container system so I can prob run rows of that through the raised bed and either install drip emitters, sprayers, or drip tape running off it depending on what I am planting.

Will 4" or 6" drip tape work for pretty much anything? I'm guessing 8" or 12" is not enough to keep seeds wet that are not close to the holes, right?

Do people normally run the 3/4" tubing then run 1/4 tubing and heads off of it or just put it close together and put the heads directly in it?

For winter I plan to direct seed most stuff cause crops will be lettuce, cabbage, radishes, carrots, beets, beans..that sort of thing maybe a couple of other root crops and some more greens.

I realize I'm probably complicating this but want to set it up a way that makes sense from the start.

Check out this site. www.dripirrigation.com
They have everything you need to set up a system and good reference guides on planning your drip system too.

Will 4" or 6" drip tape work for pretty much anything? I'm guessing 8" or 12" is not enough to keep seeds wet that are not close to the holes, right?

Probably would but you'd have to adjust the time run and frequency much more.

8-12" is ideal for the spacing of tomato, squash, and pepper plants but no it isn't going to saturate a wide area of soil. For ex. my bush bean rows have 4" tape.

I don't use any 1/4" because I do fertigation so my whole system is 3/4" with 1/2" feeder lines and heads but my beds are about 5x bigger than yours too.

You will have to do some fine tuning no matter how you set it up initially so just keep the system as flexible as possible. You don't want the drip system to dictate the planting plan. It needs to be the other way around - the system adjusts to the planting.

Dave

What is the likely hood of over watering some things before getting it figured out?

What is the likely hood of over watering some things before getting it figured out?

It's possible of course but with careful monitoring for the first week or so you should be able to ID any problems and fix them. And it will take some experimenting to get the time on and frequency set (most run them too often and for too short a time).

But an emitter can always be replaced with a slower one or traded with another faster one somewhere else. Drip tape can always be moved, spliced or Super glued shut and re-cut later if needed.

Don't misunderstand me - no system is ever perfect. Tears and holes happen, emitters get plugged, hard water is hard on the system. And no system can be just "set and forget" no matter how small it may be. But when compared to other methods it benefits both the plants and the gardener.

Dave