hi Ted,

You will have to know how many zone or stations your controller has. How many?

You will have to know the general operating concept of the system. Do you?

Would you know the basics of installing another zone or zones to your system?

I am asking you this to find out what is your level of understanding and can gauge my comments accordingly. I can take you through the installation step by step with questions and recommendations if you have the patience and want to save money. Otherwise hire a licensed landscaping contractor who can do this fairly quickly but would costs you about double. This is not hard to do and we expect you will be giving advice and recommendations here on gardenweb when your done. Good luck and aloha.

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I have been away on vacation.

I am familiar with how these systems are installed. In my backyard, there is one already installed zone that covers my area of interest (the rose beds and vegetable garden beds).

I would like to remove two of the heads that each sweep 90 degrees across this area. I would like to replace with drip hoses that would deliver the water. I have read that roses and tomatoes do not like to be sprayed; they like to be watered at their base.

Let me know your thoughts on this. maybe there exists a different type of head that has a better spray pattern. but the drip hoses would be versatile.

Another comment. On my control panel, there are 6 zones that can be programmed. I have 6 zones in my yard. Adding a 7th would probably require a new control panel.

Ted,

Your idea is fine. So adding a zone is out. Saves time and money. The two heads were only for the gardens and were on their own zone(assumption). The issue is the water needs for each type of plant that you want to drip irrigate. Fortunately drip emitters comes in many different flow rates that accommodate different plant water needs. You have to design ahead what size emitters you need or just do trial and error to see what works. If you use drip tape, the tape comes in different flow rates and hole spacing. But you knew this already. JMHO GL Aloha

Perhaps I misunderstand the problem, but if you just want to get the water now coming from your sprinkler heads traveling down a soaker or drip hose, this is no big deal. The first thing you need to do is familiarize yourself with the distinction between hose and pipe threads, and the devices used to connect one to the other. You will also want to check out pressure reduction devices, flow discs and whatnot, because soaker and drip lines can't handle the high pressures required by your sprayers. You will need to dig down to where the sprinkler head attaches to the PVC line (a garden hose and pressure nozzle is useful here), and remove it (it will probably be attached to a 'riser,' which you can also remove.) Then it's simply a matter of attaching a piece of PVC, using a threaded connector, to bring the flow to ground level, with an 'elbow' to make it parallel to the ground. This is were I would attach the appropriate pressure reduction device. Then you can attach 1/2" poly line to where you want the soaker or drip line to start.

I water all my perennials and shrubs with soaker hoses. Drip lines are great in theory, but I've had a lot of problems with them. The holes are rarely right where you want them, the emitters frequently "blow out," and they sometimes whistle. They are also less flexible than soaker hoses. I've found the 5/8" hoses more durable than the 1/2".

I'm sure you can get a great deal of helpful info on the websites of Toro, RainBird, etc.