# Irrigation system installation



## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

While I have installed a lot of lawn and shrubbery irrigation systems around my homes for 40 years or so, I'm getting close to the point in my GRR development that I need to install the irrigation system. It's a ladder track layout, and I'm almost done with the ladder installation and soon it will be time to put pipe and wire down before I backfill the layout up to the ladder tops.


The basic irrigation gear is already installed...controller and solenoid antisiphon valves. The next step is the distribution piping. Down here in San Diego, I have no issues with freezing pipes.


I've always used rigid PVC pipe to install underground sprinkler systems and flexible vinyl piping for drip systems. My gut tells me I'll need a spray system...and a drip system. Then again, I've noted that some of the drip systems can be fitted with sprayers. So question 1 is do I need two systems? Given that I intend to plant some of the little boxwood type trees, can they handle being irrigated by just spray, or is a dedicated drip/different irrigation schedule for them advised?


Question 2 has to do with the piping and fittings. I've noted that it's now possible to use flexible vinyl tubing for lawn sprinkler spray type systems (high pressure). Do those push in parts really stay pushed in over time? I've used them in the low pressure drip systems I have, but never in a situation with an 80 psi feed.


What have folks experienced?


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## alecescolme (Dec 20, 2010)

I use high pressure flexible garden hose for my sprinklers. I make the connection really secure with a metal clamp which I tighten with a screwdriver. I have not found these to fail with pressure.









Alec.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

I use a combination of drip and spray. For me, the spray using regular heads works fine for the miniature trees and will also include the ground cover (very little soil shows through on the T&LBRR), but I try to use drip and soaker lines near the wooden structures because the spray from the twice daily watering is hard on them as well as the paper signs on all structures.

Drip systems are more maintenance by nature. We have hard water and excessive pressure and these lines will clog, crack, and/or blow out far more often that regular garden/grass systems. I also like to hand water certain areas (usually every morning when the weather warms up) to commune with the garden, encourage growth, and because _no system_ really cuts it for _every_ plant growing out there.



Of course if nice if you can find some way to hide the sprinklers.


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## R.W. Marty (Jan 2, 2008)

Hi Mike,
A drip system should have a pressure regulator in line to function correctly, without the regulator you spend a lot of time looking for blown off heads and putting them back.

A pressure regulator in line for your spray heads kind of limits their value if the pressure is low enough for your drip heads.

I would consider two systems, one for drip and one for spray. Pipe and fitting costs are pretty reasonable right now after the fill and landscaping are in place 
they become quite a bit more expensive.

I use 3/4 sched 40 PVC for the trunk lines, 1/2 inch poly for the runouts and 1/4 inch tubing for the drips and mini spray heads, works pretty well for us 
and i'm pretty sure we get a lot hotter and dryer than you do in Sandyeggo.

Good luck on the project.
Rick


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## JPCaputo (Jul 26, 2009)

I had a drip system with the 1/2 in main line. It was in the ground probably 5 years or more. However in the 2 years I've been here it's leaked like a sive. The push in connectors weren't water tight at all, and blew out with low pressure about 45psi. 

I recently tore it up, and used PVC hardline with the drip line adapters where sprinklers would go. No leaks at all. And much less weeds. 

JP


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Good quality flex pipe will last a long time, the key is to pressure regulate all the piping. I use 30 psi. 

I would use flex tubing throughout, or just a couple of rigid lines for main feeders. 

Also, Hydroscape is a good place to buy superior drip line, the kind with internal pressure regulators for each drip point, and you can get it in 6 and 12" dripper spacings. 

Greg


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Mike, 

Sonsider using a "PEX" pipe system. It is vinyl pipe and will hold up to the high pressure. I would steer away from the steel material connectors. Use the Copper rings that you have to press on the fittings with a special tool. They will not corrode.


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks for the replies. Your answers put me onto looking into micro-sprayers and drippers as a single solution space. What I found was that the micro-sprayers can put out a heck of a lot more water than I thought...up to 30 gallons/hr per head (not that I'm gonna run em that hard). That means I can get enough water onto the ground cover AND run drip at the same time if I match the run time to the planting needs. If a tree needs 1 gallon a day...and I put in one gallon an hour dripper per plant, that when I run the system four times a day for 15 minutes...the trees/plants get the right amount of water...and so do the ground covers if I adjust the gallons/minute appropriately...which you can do on the newer micro-sprayers at each head. So, between the irrigation timer and the controls on the spray head, you can "tune" the system to the plantings. If you need more to a plant/tree, you can add more drippers too.


The limitation is the number of drippers/spray heads per single 1/2" line...and there's a simple gallons/hour limit yo need to adhere to. That's easy to fix by adding more lines if you need more than a single line can handle. The valve/filter assembly really doesn't limit how many drippers/sprayer you put on a system...unless you're into doing HUGE areas.

Technology has moved a long way...and I'm glad to have been "pushed" in this direction. Makes installation and operation a lot easier than running two systems...and a lot cheaper too.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

Giving a tree 1/4 gal, 4 times is not the same as 1 gal once. 
The tree will prefer to get it all at once, so there is time for the water to get down to the roots. 
Your planned light waterings will fan out and encourage shallow roots. 

PVC to the pressure valves, 1/2" polypipe to the center of the irrigation zone, then 1/4" spaghetti lines with heads to each plant or a sprayer head for a couple of plants.. 

I have more problems with the gardener removing heads, than I do blow offs, blind raking. 

John


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 08 May 2011 07:12 AM 

I have more problems with the gardener removing heads, than I do blow offs, blind raking. 

John 
OH yeah...I know about "blind raking". It usually goes like "Were you f**king blind? Did you NOT see all that spaghetti tubing you were raking up and putting in the trash can along with the leaves and the bark I so carefully installed? Did you think those little colored buttons on the ends were flower buds? Where have you ever seen "lumpy leaves (bark)?"....followed shortly by a multi-geyser "fountain" display around 200' of yard perimeter.


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Totalwrecker on 08 May 2011 07:12 AM 
Giving a tree 1/4 gal, 4 times is not the same as 1 gal once. 
...

John 
You're right....gotta rethink this.


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## toddalin (Jan 4, 2008)

Posted By Mike Reilley on 08 May 2011 10:51 AM 
Posted By Totalwrecker on 08 May 2011 07:12 AM 

I have more problems with the gardener removing heads, than I do blow offs, blind raking. 

John 
OH yeah...I know about "blind raking". It usually goes like "Were you f**king blind? Did you NOT see all that spaghetti tubing you were raking up and putting in the trash can along with the leaves and the bark I so carefully installed? Did you think those little colored buttons on the ends were flower buds? Where have you ever seen "lumpy leaves (bark)?"....followed shortly by a multi-geyser "fountain" display around 200' of yard perimeter. 

Can you say that all in Spanish? If not, you're wasting your breath around here.


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

But the blind gardener is him


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## R.W. Marty (Jan 2, 2008)

Quote Posted By Totalwrecker on 08 May 2011 07:12 AM 
Giving a tree 1/4 gal, 4 times is not the same as 1 gal once. 
... 

John 

You're right....gotta rethink this. 


Mike 
Like I said earlier. 
Rick


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Yep...you sure did. I shoulda just gone with my gut...cause I've always had the sprinklers separated from the drip. I have five sprinkler circuits and five drip systems in my back yard...all separate. In the case of the GRR, already have three solenoid controlled valves out there...one in use...so I do have two available for the drip and sprinkler system.


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## RimfireJim (Mar 25, 2009)

Here is a great website with tutorials on both spray and drip irrigation: http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/ Even though you are not a newbie to the subject, I think you still might find some useful information there. 


General "rule", or guideline, is spray heads for turf and use drip or micro-irrigation for everything else. I like the flexibility that drip systems allow, with the wide array of products that can all be plugged into the same distribution system and the ability to easily add or delete emitters as needed.


In addition to Hydroscape that Greg mentioned, Grangetto's (another local irrigation/ag retailer) also carries a good selection of products, including microsprayers that I have used on low pressure systems. There are fixed sprayers (90 degree, 180 degree, etc. in different orifice sizes) as well as rotarys that can cover up to a surprisingly large radius.


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

I saw a system at my local ACE hardware store and thought of you. I wish I could remember the name, but it had both drip and spray capability in the same system.


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