Gardening 2012 - Drip Irrigation Part 2

Messy Drip Line Installation

In today's installment we're running the 1/2 inch mainline back to the new upper bed. Nothing much to that:

1. Remove the stub from the right arm of the faucet "T"
2. Connect the 1/2 inch main line in it's place
3. Carefully unroll the main line, holding it in place with wire hold downs.

When it actually reaches the upper bed, we've finally got something interesting to see.

Drip Line and "Goof Plug"

With the onions drying on the porch and the tomatoes plagued by Fusarium Wilt the upper bed isn't very interesting.  The tomatoes each have a 1 GPH emitter just like the zucchini out front. However, there are four "mini-rows" of Swiss Chard and they most definitely need water. So for each pair of rows I punched a hole in the main line, inserted a transfer barb and this time added a length of drip tubing. It's like regular 1/4 inch tubing with little emitters embedded every 6 inches. The ends are closed with "goof plugs" rather than emitters.

Emitter Emitting

From the upper bed we make a right angle turn with an elbow fitting and head about 10 feet south to the old "lower bed". Another elbow fitting turns right and it's off to the front bed.

Back at the lower bed, things are essentially the same as in the upper bed - 1/4 inch supply tubing and emitters for three tomato plants and (eventually) drip line for fall planted stuff: Cima di Rapa, another try for beets and maybe some lettuce or other greens..