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Drip hose for 4x10 bed

gblack
13 years ago

I'm planning a drip irrigation system for a new garden and have several 4x10 beds (not raised) I need to irrigate. Plant spacing within those beds will generally be 1 foot, so the typical bed would have 40 plants. The soil is mostly clay but I am going to be tilling in a 2-3 inches of compost (I'll add more as I can in coming years - it's an old horse corral and soil tests indicate things aren't to far out of wack other than I could use some Nitrogen and the pH, while good for the area (Utah) could still use some lowering). In terms of soil drainage, I dug a hole in the middle of the field roughly a foot down and about 8-12 inches wide and filled it with water. Initially it didn't look like it was moving, but 30 minutes later when I returned it was gone. I've seen about the same repairing a number of broke irrigation pipes for the lawn in the last few days. My initial plans were to come off of a 1/2 inch feed to four 1/4 drip lines for the bed, each one right next to the plants in a row. Further reading and study and I see people suggesting three 1/4 drip lines between plant rows for this situation. After looking at it further myself I have a few questions:

1. Can I get away with two 1/4 drip lines instead? Each plant will still be 6 inches from the drip line this way.

2. Anyone have a clue how long I'll need to water with a either a 0.5GPH or 1GPH dripper to get decent soil penetration (suitable for most vegetables) without having excessive run-off (does the clay dictate I need the 0.5GPH to avoid the run-off?)

3. Any distance limitations I should be aware of with the black 1/2 inch pipe typical with drip irrigation? Is 300 feet a problem?

Thanks!

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