Hi All - I’m thinking about getting a drip irrigation system for my garden and was curious if anyone here has tried one. Anything that has worked well, or not so much? Brand recommendations? Rain Bird and Hunter have come up in my searches so far. Other considerations a beginner wouldn’t think about? I’m in the US, so I also need it to be able to be shipped here.
Build your own. Helluva a lot cheaper, and more configurable for what you need. All you need is a cheap spout timer, some drip tubing, and a couple connectors. Any hardware store will have all the bits and pieces you need, but there are tons of supply sites online that can ship any bits you need.
You can what a kit looks like here for example. You could just buy a starter, or source the bits yourself for a little bit cheaper. Once you have a basic setup going, it’s dirt cheap to maintain and build off of in the future.
@just_another_person @dominotheory Exactly. It’s basically a tinkertoy system so you can buy the parts and assemble them in different configurations depending on what this season needs. I think there’s better quality parts available online, like from dripworks, than we can get in our local big box hardware stores.
I was curious how hard it would be to DIY, sounds like a good option. A starter kit is appealing just from the lower mental effort aspect, but it’s sounding like it’s not as complicated as I was thinking. Do you know if there is a big difference in quality between the drip tubing manufacturers? Or are there particular parts I should invest a little more in?
There are 2 main materials for irrigation tubing: polyethylene and vinyl. The main differences between them are that poly is stiffer and harder to bend in tight corners, but it’s probably more durable. Vinyl is (to me) a little easier to work with.
Stick to well known brands sold by retailers that specialize in this. Don’t just buy random branded stuff of Amazon, because you’re likely to get junk.