Installing and Maintaining a Drip Line System
Drip Line is an efficient watering solution that delivers a uniform application of water, directly to plant roots, either at the soil surface or root zone. It saves time and water, with inbuilt drippers positioned evenly along its length, enabling you to plan and execute precision watering, ensuring healthy plants and solutions that work.
It is suitable for a wide range of watering needs, including vegetable beds, flower beds, trees, hedges, shrubs, and planters. Should you need to water effectively on sloping or uneven terrain, we recommend pressure compensated Drip Line featuring integrated drippers that ensure uniform watering across the entire length of pipe.
HydroSure offers the widest range of Drip Line solutions, using the most up-to-date technology from various litre-per-hour outputs, pressure regulating, and anti-siphon function.
Healthy Plants
Drip Line waters at ground level, so the risk of scorched leaves is reduced and each plant receives exactly what it needs to thrive. The best time of day to water your plants is early in the morning or in the evening. This helps to reduce evaporation loss. Watering at this time of day is also beneficial as water has time to soak into the ground towards the roots, encouraging deeper root growth for healthier plants.
Reliable - Precision Watering
Water is distributed slowly and accurately, directly to the root zone through highly engineered labyrinths within the pipe. Each dripper has a predetermined flow rate and is usually pressure compensated, allowing you to reliably plan and execute precision watering, even to places that are otherwise hard to reach.
Solutions That Work
You can create a bespoke system individually tailored to your garden needs. Straight Joiners are ideal for connecting two pieces of Drip Line together. Elbows can be used to direct the pipe around corners without kinking, whilst Tees divert water flow three ways. For complete convenience when adjusting water flow on and off, a Control Valve is ideal.
Water-Saving
Drip Line saves water by watering directly to the plant roots, soaking into a cone shape of 30cm on either side of the outlet. You can help to save the earth’s precious water resources by providing what your plants need. Drip Line irrigation consumes up to 70% less water than manual watering.
How To Install Drip Line
Watering your plants could take place all year round depending on weather conditions, soil type, climate, and the type of plants you have. Watering, however, mostly takes place between Spring and Autumn. It is a good time to start planning and preparing the area you need to plant and water from February onwards.
Designing Your Own Drip Line System
If you’re looking to build your own system from scratch, there are a few extra things to consider:
- What is it you need to water?
- How much water do you require?
- What type of soil do you have?
Knowing this will determine the optimum spacing of your drippers and how often you’ll need them to distribute water.
How Much Water Do Plants Need?
On a hot summer day, the average shrub needs 4-5mm of water per day. Grass needs 3mm of water per m², and hanging baskets need 5-6mm of water per day.
If you’re planning to water hedges, raised beds, or vegetable patches, your drippers should be around 0.15m – 0.3m apart. Borders will require a spacing of approx. 0.5m.
Top Tip: Its good practice to create a rough sketch of the area that you need to irrigate.
To work out how much Drip Line you will need, calculate your watering area in meters squared and then times it by two. Click here for a more comprehensive guide to how long you need to water for.
Water Pressure And Filtration
Drip Line is a low-pressure system and the average household pressure is between 1 to 3 bar. It is essential that you use a pressure reducer or regulator to ensure water is delivered evenly along the entire length of your pipe and prevent the system from building up too much pressure.
Irrigation Filters are advised to prevent debris from entering the system and causing blockage/damage to components. This will help with the upkeep and prolong the life of your system.
You may wish to fit a Back Flow Preventer to your tap right at the beginning of your system to protect your water source from contamination.
Supplying Your Drip Line System
You can connect LDPE Supply Pipe to your tap by using a barbed tap connector.
If you wish to use a Garden Hose Pipe to supply water to your system, use a tap and hose end connector. To create a connection between hose pipe and Drip Line, you can use a Male Threaded Accessory Adaptor - 3/4" and a Barbed 3/4" tap connector x 14mm.
Automating Your Drip Line System
We recommend fully automating your water system with our range of Hydrosure Tap Timers. Simply program when and how long you would like to water, attach the timer to your tap or backflow preventer, and use the outlet/s to run your system.
Regular and specific watering times are created to ensure the irrigation system is run efficiently, optimising the water supply for your plants.
Building & Maintaining A Drip line System
Essential Components for a Drip Line System
It is essential in any Drip Line system that you use a Barbed End Plug/End Sleeve/Fold Over End Stop to maintain the pressure and close the system.
End Sleeves and Fold Over End Stops are easy to remove and replace: ideal for when the system needs to be flushed. Flushing your Drip Line is essential at the start and end of each watering season, as it prevents sediment build-up that could potentially block emitters.
Use hold-down stakes to secure the pipe to the ground, whether it is a flexible micro pipe or a larger diameter pipe. We have a variety of stakes and recommend placing a stake every 30cm to ensure minimal movement.
With all connectors, remember to buy the same size as the internal pipe diameter to ensure the seal is water-tight. If you're connecting to different sized pipe diameters, you can use an adaptor.
Top Tip: Cover your Drip Line in mulch. This not only improves the appearance of decorative flower beds and protects your pipe from frost damage in the winter months but also ensures water from your Drip Line is less likely to evaporate in the air. We do not recommend submerging Drip Line underground, with the exception of Anti-siphon Drip Line.
With the use of either barbed connectors or nut-lock fittings, you can build entire grids and systems. Nut-lock fittings are easy to remove/replace, for complete flexibility of your watering system.
Top Tip: Immerse your Drip Line in hot water to enable easier fitting of your barbed connectors.
Barbed Valves allow you greater watering flexibility, allowing you to control water supply to certain areas. This will prevent any water wastage if you only need to water a smaller area or certain parts of your system. You can even use a valve at the end of your system to aid the draining process.
Understanding Soil Type When Irrigating With Drip Line
It is helpful to understand what type of soil you have as water moves differently through the various types. Sand, loam, and clay soils create different wetting patterns and impact the way water is distributed within the soil.
- Sandy soil moves water quickly in a vertical wetting pattern. Using a closer spaced Drip Line (15cm) with a higher flow rate and watering less and more frequently is recommended.
- Loam soil allows water to travel slower creating a vertical and horizontal wetting pattern. Use wider-spaced Drip Line such as 30/33cm
- Clay soil absorbs water more slowly. Use a slower flow rate (0.85l/h) to avoid water pooling on the surface and water for long periods with a low flow rate to ensure plants receive enough water.
A simple way to understand soil type is to take a handful of dry soil - make a fist while holding soil in your hand. Open your hand. If the soil crumbles, the soil type would be sandy. If the soil holds together in clumps and slowly falls away, the soil type is loam. If the soil holds its shape, the soil type would be described as clay.
Now that you know how to set your system up, it's important to know which Drip Line you need and what unique features to look out for, including the internal diameter and whether it's pressure-compensating and/or anti-siphon. Click Here for our guide on the different types of Drip Line.
Further Drip Line Information
For further information on how to install a drip line garden watering system, including how to calculate drip line lengths and find out which drip line suits your garden, read our how to guides.
