Texas Gardening: Drip Irrigation, 1 by throneofyord

throneofyord wrote:
So far the best prices I have gotten for irrigation parts is at http://www.dripirrigation.com

Here is a list and description of the stuff I like:

A015 Back flow preventer This you connect so that when water pressure goes away, you don't have garden water going back into the pipes that supply your drinking water. If you have ponds and hoses this is a really good Idea. I have not yet seen a well made one for hoses. They all spring leaks, because they are right at the top getting the most stress and they are cheap plastic. Buy several. I redid my pipes so I have a direct run to my house and the ability to cut off the water to the rest of my property without cutting off my house. I can also just cut off my house if I need to. I put a quality antibackflow into my plumbing system so I don't have to mess with these important but flaky components.

C001 Battery operated timer. An absolute must. This is how you can leave your garden on a hot day and have a chance of coming back to live plants. So far this model is my favorite. I have tried nine other systems. I usually have four of these in operation and two spares. This allows me to program multiple waterings. My banana trees get misted three times a day in the tropical area near my house. This keeps the humidity in my house at an even keel. I am a swamp creature, I must have moist air to survive.

F301 Y style filter with hose threads, 200 mesh filter. This is a finer filter than usual, but I prefer to clean the filter instead of trying to clean my irrigation system. I clean it every couple of months, although I suspect I could go a year.

A115 30 psi pressure regulator. This drops the water pressure to a more reasonable rate for drip irrigation. Usually they advise you to get a 20 or 25 psi regulator, I like the 30 because the spinning waterers have much better range and the misters can make a nice cooling mist. These guys do not seem to last much more than a year. The springs go bad after a while and they start leaking. So I keep spares. You can usually get the 25 psi ones locally but you have to order the 30 psi ones.

Lf028 This is a nut lock swivel T. This connects the hose type fittings to the 1/2" tubing. Normally they advise you to use a compression fitting. Compression fittings are fine and they cost less. These are reusable and more durable. I like them better! I use nut locks for all of my tubing connections now. This way when a freeze comes I can open the nutlocks and the pipe will not be as likely to rupture by water freezing.

I usually buy my 1/2" tubing at Lowe's in order to avoid paying for shipping on the bulky stuff.
I also buy my 1/4" line at Lowe's

A035 This is a tool for making holes in the 1/2" tubing to connect the 1/4" line. There are cheaper tools and more expensive tools that work O.K. This one is my favorite.

Goof plugs are good for fixing some leaks and for covering hole that are not needed. I use about five of them a year.

SF001-50 These are the plugs that stick into the holes to connect the tubing. I buy them in sets of 50 because I end up using them in sets of fifty. Here is an important tip; It is much easy to put them into the 1/4" line, if the line has been warmed by the sun.

T013 1/2" drip tape with emitters at a 12" spacing. A lot of tapes have further apart distances, I am not so fond of those. This tape does well buried or above ground. It is similar to the 1/2" tubing but much thinner. I prefer it above ground as rodents have regularly chewed it in half when I had it on the ground surface. To make sure it drips correctly into pots, I have used a larks head knot in a strip of single knot polyester jersey. We bought it for a dollar a yard and made strips about 12" long and 1" wide. I also cut 18" pieces of wire and bent them into hoops to keep the drip tape over my pots.

A027 drip tape connector end. I use these to terminate a drip tape end.

A122 1/2" barb heavy duty ball valve. I use these to terminate a 1/2" tubing line. This way I can open the end easily to flush out particles. I do this about every two months and every time I modify the line to remove the bits of plastic I may have put in. I would rather not have those bits of plastic lodge in emitters.

d032-100 These are adjustable emitters on plastic spikes. They come with a tubing connector for plugging the 1/4" line into the 1/2" line. In a pack of 100 they cost about 48 cents each. You can unscrew the cap to wash out the emitter or screw it all the way down to turn it off. I like these best, but they have a serious flaw. They do not compensate for water pressure. A good drip tape line compensates for pressure. A lot of fixed drip systems compensate for pressure. The adjustable ones do not yet have that ability. There are some fixed ones with fittings to modify rate, but they have not ever worked well for me. The nice things about the spikes is that they tend to stay in place.

Ms013 Mister with 1/4 barb outlet. They say this works with 25 to 30 psi, I like the way it works on a 30 psi line. These give me as good a mist as much more expensive and units. I love these. Warning, a lot of well informed people consider these a high risk in spreading pathogens. They do not like misters. Swamp creature me, dry air kills, so I will take my chances. These don't aim well and I have not had good luck with fixtures to hold them. I take a stiff wire, wrap it around the unit and then use the wire to plant or attach the mister how I like.

MSA023 This is a spinning sprinkler with a range of about 10 feet. I like these for a field of pots. Don't get a lot of these, wetting the leaves on plants regularly is what you usually want to avoid. this is good however for a bed of tropicals that want to get wet regularly.

There it is the whole list, If you find a better way let me know, drip irrigation is much better than when I started, but it still has a long way to go.
Bob