• Do you need help identifying a 🌶?
    Is your plant suffering from an unknown issue? 🤧
    Then ask in Identification and Diagnosis.

water Watering a raised bed

cmccarty

cmccarty

Hey Guys - sorry if this has been asked before. I searched but didn't find anything.

I have two 4'x8' raised bed for my 16 peppers and I'm trying to figure out the best way to water them? I try to keep the water off the leaves as much as possible by watering at the base of the plants. The problem is the plants tend to be slightly higher than the soil around them so the water usually runs off, away from the plant, before absorbing into the soil.

Is this just a common problem?

I'm planning on installing a drip irrigation system in a few weeks, which should solve the problem, but was looking for advice to hold me over until I get that far.
 
thanks
 
Old garden hose, 1/64th inch drill bit every 6-10 inches, adjusted manually, with a battery timer.

Piece of cake. In fact, it works so well, that it might make you reconsider drip system for raised beds. If you've got straight runs - as opposed to containers - the drip system will prove itself a bit pricey.

I'm telling you that as someone who knows every piece of drip irrigation hardware by heart. I'm exaggerating, of course, but I also grow in containers.
 
Thanks for the tip. How would the garden hose trick work going from bed to bed? They are next to each other  but slightly offset,  ---    < like this.

If I drill, wont the pressure be way low the farther I go down the line?
 
With 1/64 " holes and 8foot runs I wouldn't worry about it.  The pressure inside hose pretty much equalizes when it becomes full.
Plots being offset no matter.  Just punch holes where needed along hose path.   You may find that you have to stake your hose at points to prevent shifting due to offsets. Stakes and hose clamps come to mind.  Use your imagination.   Remember to punch holes after you get it layed out proper and punch hole in BOTTOM of hose that faces into the dirt. 
 
If you keep the holes small, there's no way you'll have a problem. Not until the combined size of all the holes is equal to the diameter of the hose, and then you have to figure the flow rate, which further negates the issue. Like I said, you manually adjust the valve to achieve the pressure that you want. Or, if you're really afraid of this method, buy a run of funny pipe, and install a metered emitter. (in the range 1/2 GPH - 2 GPH, depending on the plant) This is more in line with a full blown drip irrigation system, but it's a cheap way to do it.

As for the offset in the bed, that's where a custom drilled hose shines. No holes where you span the gap in the bed = no water outside the bed to create a lush green oasis for weeds. You could also use the funny pipe and put a splitter in the line.

Now, if you're already in for a drip irrigation system, I'll share my favorite method, and I use it almost exclusively. Over the last few years, I've experimented at great length with both gravity (rain barrel) systems, as well as pressure regulated (spigot) systems. I've gone to city water, after determining that our water does not decimate microbe colonies in my organic setups, and reserve the rain barrel for making various compost and manure teas. I like coverage. Like rain. Although drip irrigation is used in farming throughout the world, there's part of me that can't get away from recognizing that nature is the blueprint. And of course, when it rains, the water isn't targeted on spots that need it, while neglecting everything else. So I started making drip rings. That works good, but not to my liking. What I ended up with, and where I remain today, is using the 360 degree emitters - the little spinning disks that fan out the water. I put a 10 GPH regulator on them, and put them at the end of the drip line with a 90 degree elbow. They screw in to a piece of tubing, about 1/2". This is then staked into the containers about 2" above the surface. For my area, running the system 27 minutes per day is the ticket. For a 10 gallon cloth pot, I get perfect coverage from 1 emitter per container. If I need more coverage, I raise the height, and maybe add another emitter, if necessary for the container size. I can also put 1 emitter between 2 containers, but now I'm wasting.
 
For $5 or so you can go hi tech with 1/2" pvc.  Couple of T's and a 90* or two and a hose fitting ya got it.
 
I have a RainBird drip system I bought at Menard's.
 
Micro bubblers on riser stakes, set in between plants, just enough to wet the soil, not spray on the plants. I would guess about a gallon/hour.
 
An hour or two each afternoon (unless it rains, of course) keeps them watered but not over-watered.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top