Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Drip, Drip, Drip


Drip, Drip, Drip, Drip

No I’m not having a problem with an annoying faucet, drip irrigation is one of the modern wonders of agricultural technology. Drip tube is created by a poly tube that has passages every 8-12 inches that seep out a controlled amount of water, but have a labyrinth that won’t allow fine soil particles to block the passage when water pressure is off.

We typically use drip when we use a plastic row cover, which isn’t very often. The only annual crop we use drip on is cherry tomatoes. It keep them clean and helps us control water, when the crop is mature. 

We also used drip when we started the raspberries. We used plastic row cover to keep the weeds down in the rows for the first couple of years and allow us to water. When I had tried to start raspberries in the past those were the two problem areas. Worked like a champ this time.

You can also use drip without row cover instead of a soaker hose. It is inexpensive and very flexibl

You need a few accessories to use drip. The first is a regulator, to step down the water pressure from what is in your garden hose to 10-15 psi required by the drip. The regulators are preset for pressure. You also need adapters from your hose to the pipe fittings on the regulator.

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