SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

For what you are looking for, Drip (Netafim) is the way to go



www.irrigationsolutions.com

Quoted from "dland"

Thanks for all the replies. I'm having trouble finding sprinkler heads with a spray distance that will work. I have seen that there are converters that will change your standard sprinkler head into a drip system. These seem like a cheap and easy solution to the problem, but how well do they work? Do they work with any standard irrigation system? My system allows for a maximum of 99 minutes per station. Will that be enough time for a thorough watering under a drip system? Or would I be better off just hooking it up to a hose (that would only work for one of the beds)?

With the drip system, since we're talking about one planting area, if you are not getting enough water from what ever drip stuff you install... you simply put in more drip equipement.

Of course, even in drip, you actually have lots of choises. You can use actual drip emmitters (where emmitters come in 0.5, 1, and 2 gph (gallons per hour) of flow rate. The total amount of water you get will depend upon which size emmitters you get and how far apart you space them. But then, beyond the basic "drip" emmitter is actual spray emmitters. They make little emmitters that send a spray in full arcs, emmitters with 1/2 arcs, 1/4 arcs. They usually get installed on top of a stake and the stake usually has a know that allows you to adjust the water (and therefore the distance) the emmitter throws the water.

The only MAIN thing to know about drip is that it requires a VERY FINE mess filter (because the smallest of particals can quickly clog the small opennings in drip equipment), and that it will all be designed to operate at pressures below 50psi. The reason for the 50 psi is because most drip equipment is designed such that you have a 1/2" thin wall pipe, and you install the emmitters by just punching a hole in the pipe and inserting the barb of the emmitter. At pressures above 50psi, the barbs can be pushed out of the 1/2" tubing.

There are plenty of ways to convert and existing sprinkler to drip, the main key being that you MUST have a filter and something to limit the pressure to less than 50psi. If you currently have a bunch of spray heads in the planter and want to convert to drip, you really just need one of these sprays converted to drip and cap off the rest (or ripe them out all together). Because once you get water to the bed, you get it from one side of the bed to the other with the 1/2" tubing laid on the ground (and covered with mulch) with the emmitters poked into the 1/2" tubing where ever you need the water.

You could always just live with the overthrow of the existing nozzles.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm having trouble finding sprinkler heads with a spray distance that will work. I have seen that there are converters that will change your standard sprinkler head into a drip system. These seem like a cheap and easy solution to the problem, but how well do they work? Do they work with any standard irrigation system? My system allows for a maximum of 99 minutes per station. Will that be enough time for a thorough watering under a drip system? Or would I be better off just hooking it up to a hose (that would only work for one of the beds)?

I don't recommend the Toro 2x6 nozzle, I merely note its existence. Those tiniest nozzles clog so easily, that Toro requires an extra screen of fine-mesh stainless steel in between the nozzle and the plastic nozzle screen. The one unique Toro nozzle that can be extremely useful is their 4x18 side strip, and it, too, clogs easily, but adding that stainless-steel screen can protect it.

Really watch the head height with any of the TORO's small spray nozzles (4X30...2X6...5'...etc.) With such small orifices, they tend to plug up fairly quickly. The smallest nozzle we use anymore is the 9X18. In a garden situation, the head could be installed higher than normal, allowing a smaller nozzle to be effective, longer. But, if it comes to lawn...stay away from the little nozzles.

Good to know. I have not been a toro Guy, but I am interested in there new nozzles for water conservation.



The 2x6 is interesting. I was thinking of the specialty nozzle Riggs brass. I don't know much about them, but they have fan spray and other smaller than the 15SST.

The only strip spray designed to spray less than a 4-foot width is one made by Toro, and it only covers a 2x6 strip.

I will probably be corrected here, usually you will get 4 ft distances out of spray heads as a minimum. If you get much less than that you may want to go with drip irrigation.

In Texas, with a new design we are not supposed to design spray less than 4 ft distances.

There are some manufactures that have heads or nozzles that spray less. You may wait for better information from people that use more of the smaller spray heads.

I have a bed of plants up against my house that is about 3 feet tall, and 30 feet long, and three feet deep (that is, it sticks out three feet from the house). and I just removed all the old shrubs and added new ones. Since the new shrubs are smaller than the old ones, the sprinklers are actually spraying past the shrubs and out of the planter. I'm using standard shrub heads on the sprinklers. I went to Lowe's and Home Depot and couldn't find any heads that would spray a distance of less than four or five feet, which is still too far. The ones currently in place have screws on the top and I could try adjusting the distance on each one, but will it put too much pressure on the system to have every sprinkler in one station be throttled back that much? Or, alternatively is there some other type of head I can use?