Drip Cap on PVC Riser
I used to spend hours every weekend dragging hoses all over the yard to water my young fruit trees, and it got to be a real hassle. After a collapsed lung sent me to the hospital during the hottest week of the hottest and driest summer on record, my poor wife had to pick up my slack to keep everything alive (She must REALLY love me). After that, I knew I needed to find a way to try to automate irrigating the fruit trees. So last year, I installed waterlines and sprayer heads all over the yard, and it worked beautifully! All I had to do to water was walk outside and turn a few dials, and if I ever needed someone else to water for me again, it wouldn’t be such a burden. However, this past summer has taught me that sprayer heads and sprinklers aren’t always the best option.
I’ve only lived in Houston for seven or eight years, but this past summer was wetter than any I’ve experienced. It seemed like a complete reversal from the brutal drought of the previous year, with fairly moderate temperatures, and such surprisingly regular rainfall that I didn't need to irrigate nearly as much. Unfortunately, the rain and high humidity also resulted in increased incidences of fire blight, black sooty mold, and wooly whitefly, and my sprayers seemed to exacerbate these problems even further. Most of my sprayers worked wonderfully for those trees with a well defined single trunk (like the apple trees), but they sprayed directly into the foliage of lower bushy trees such as the citrus, creating conditions ideal for the growth of black sooty mold and other pests.
After reviewing several options, I decided to convert my irrigation system from sprayers to drip emitters. Fortunately, I was able to find a screw-on adapter that fit my 1/2-inch risers. I started changing out all the heads, when I remembered why I had installed sprayers in the first place: I ran over my homemade drip system (a garden hose with holes drilled in it) with the lawn mower. Further more, every time in the past when I have placed a dripper or a soaker hose on the ground, it quickly became clogged. So my challenge became to find a way to irrigate my trees that 1) wouldn't spray into the leaves and make disease/pest problems worse, 2) wouldn't get shredded by the lawn mower, and 3) wouldn't get clogged up with dirt.
The answer? Hang drip-lines in the trees! from each riser I ran a drip-line with 10 0.5-gallon/hour emitters, and coiled the line around the trunk in the lowest branches of the tree. This would ensure that water would be delivered where I wanted it without clogging, I wouldn't be spraying the foliage, and the lines wouldn't get pulled into the mower. I chose to use 10 emitters per tree just to make irrigation calculations easier: 10 0.5-gallon/hour emitters running for 1 hour = 5 gallons of water per tree. I must say, I'm very impressed with how well it works so far. Now when I turn the dial, it looks and sounds like it is raining, but only under the trees! By adjusting the way water is delivered, and by spraying alternating applications of neem oil and spinosad, I am very hopeful that diseases and pests will be much easier to manage this year.
I’ve only lived in Houston for seven or eight years, but this past summer was wetter than any I’ve experienced. It seemed like a complete reversal from the brutal drought of the previous year, with fairly moderate temperatures, and such surprisingly regular rainfall that I didn't need to irrigate nearly as much. Unfortunately, the rain and high humidity also resulted in increased incidences of fire blight, black sooty mold, and wooly whitefly, and my sprayers seemed to exacerbate these problems even further. Most of my sprayers worked wonderfully for those trees with a well defined single trunk (like the apple trees), but they sprayed directly into the foliage of lower bushy trees such as the citrus, creating conditions ideal for the growth of black sooty mold and other pests.
After reviewing several options, I decided to convert my irrigation system from sprayers to drip emitters. Fortunately, I was able to find a screw-on adapter that fit my 1/2-inch risers. I started changing out all the heads, when I remembered why I had installed sprayers in the first place: I ran over my homemade drip system (a garden hose with holes drilled in it) with the lawn mower. Further more, every time in the past when I have placed a dripper or a soaker hose on the ground, it quickly became clogged. So my challenge became to find a way to irrigate my trees that 1) wouldn't spray into the leaves and make disease/pest problems worse, 2) wouldn't get shredded by the lawn mower, and 3) wouldn't get clogged up with dirt.
The answer? Hang drip-lines in the trees! from each riser I ran a drip-line with 10 0.5-gallon/hour emitters, and coiled the line around the trunk in the lowest branches of the tree. This would ensure that water would be delivered where I wanted it without clogging, I wouldn't be spraying the foliage, and the lines wouldn't get pulled into the mower. I chose to use 10 emitters per tree just to make irrigation calculations easier: 10 0.5-gallon/hour emitters running for 1 hour = 5 gallons of water per tree. I must say, I'm very impressed with how well it works so far. Now when I turn the dial, it looks and sounds like it is raining, but only under the trees! By adjusting the way water is delivered, and by spraying alternating applications of neem oil and spinosad, I am very hopeful that diseases and pests will be much easier to manage this year.
Micro-sprinklers just waste water.
0.5 gal/hr drip emitters are much better.
Drip-line in Changshou tree.
Drip-line in Dorsett Golden apple tree.
