I've gone down the rabbit hole of drip irrigation

I use soaker hoses...but dunno if those will work with a low pressure water supply. They're cheap, durable, and easy to set up.

I went down the same hole when I first started gardening. I set up a 280g plastic tote to catch rain and used a small transfer pump to push the water. I preferred using the micro-sprayers to the drippers mainly because I found it gave a more even distribution. Drippers are more efficient but also require lots of 1/4" tubing that will either get in the way or won't quite be long enough when you go to replant.

Drippers will also be more susceptible to clogging if you push fertilizers through them. Micro-Sprayers will be better for that application as well.

I probably wouldn't add fertilizers directly to the rain barrel. When applying fertilizers using drip/micro it is typically suggested you flush after fertilizing. This won't be possible if your supply is full of fertilizer. I always mixed smaller batches of fertilizer and had my pump pull directly from the fertilizer bucket in the middle of a typical watering cycle. You are obviously loosing out on the benefits of an automated system by going this route but it was something I did a couple times a week while performing other tasks around the garden.

If you really want to get fancy with your fertilizer injections, start researching venturi-systems. That will keep you busy for a while.

i you add one of these LINK to your outdoor faucet, you just need to run a hose to wherever your beds are and its as simple as it gets. because the pressure is all between the faucet and the timer there is only a 2 inch section there with no pressure staying in the house so there are no worries about it busting in the heat of the sun

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be fully automated,

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I was working towards the same goal and made pretty good progress over the couple of years I worked on it. This was 5-6 years ago so a lot of the tech that would make it do-able is much cheaper/more reliable then what i was working with.

As stated previously I used a cheap transfer pump from Lowes that pushed 330gpm's. This was sufficient for approximately 120ft of 1/2" poly tubing that circled the perimeter of the garden and had some runs that T'd off the main as well. I probably had 20 micro sprayers and 15-20 drippers connected at one time.

I was using a 1st gen WEMO switch to power the pump on/off remotely.

The main problems I faced that prevented full automation:
1. How to keep the drippers from siphoning the entire tank when the pump was shutoff.
2. How to keep the pump from running dry (or not running) if the tank was somehow emptied.

There are fairly easy answers to these problems but I could not find a cheap/easy diy method that fit my budget at the time so I chose to just manually turn it on/off while I was around.

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as for fertiliser, why not use it to fill a barrel you add fertilizer to? that way you can discontinue or add fertilizer as needed without over fertilizing the plants or making it too complicated. hell a simple set of 5 gallon buckets with drip hoses would be all you need

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I'm definitely not opposed to something like that and in fact was originally planning it, but it gets complicated fairly quickly. Seems the issues with this type of system is getting consistent flow to each plant. You could use buckets for each individual plant but space is an issue for me. If you use one big common reservoir but the pressure is low then the liquid is just going to take the path of least resistance, which is usually the first drip tube. End up with lop sided distribution. The solution is to use pressure to even it all out, with emitters usually operating at 15-20 psi to get good consistent flow from each one. With gravity feed that's not easy because it takes something like 25 feet of head to get 10 psi pressure in the line.

A lot of good information and recommendations on micro-irrigationin this thread. I encourage to go forward with it - best thing I ever did in my front yard and backyard patio landscape beds, and this heat and dry spell and thread reminds I need to continue with it for additional landscape and raised vegetable beds in my backyard. I hate with passion dragging hoses around and watering by hand. It’s good you have access to faucet water if your barrel idea doesn’t work as well as you hope.

I’d also advise against having a continuous supply of soluble fertilizers in your barrel system and rather use Venturi injection. Fertilizers are chemically a salt and when your emitters and microtubing dry out I can envision the fertilizer precipating and clogging the system without regular flushing with freshwater. But you can certainly give it a try. Doesn’t look like you doing anything on a large scale and none of the supplies are expensive should you need to re do it.

I see you are in BR. I purchase all my supplies from Irrigation Mart (used to be PolyDrip) on Airline Hwy, a few miles east of Seigen. The employees that work there have always been very helpful with answering questions you may have on setting your system up.

What type if microsprayers did you end up using?


Anybody have a irrigation system brand they recommend. Just started looking and see lots if stuff for DIG.

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What type if microsprayers did you end up using?

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I had the best luck with these assemblies. The purple 10gph regulator/coupler were critical for my setup because of the inconsistent flow I had coming from the my pump/tank. They are also really easy to disassemble and clean if they were to get plugged up.

MIster Assembly w/10gph flow control

I also liked these heads a lot.
360 heads

If you are in Baton Rouge I would second the guy who suggested polydrip or whatever it is called now.

For the poly fittings I always preferred the twist locks instead of the push/pressure fittings.

Also run the larger tubing as far as you can before you drop down to the micro stuff. If you use the micro tubing max reach is like 25 feet before the loss drops the pressure to 0

Try the EZ-Flo fertilizer. I have been using it for years.Works great.