How Long Are You Supposed to Run a Drip Irrigation System?

One of the most popular questions we get every year is: How long should I water my plants? Adam explains the factors determining the proper watering cycle for your plants.

Planting density, plant maturity, sunlight exposure, microclimate conditions, time of year, soil type and soil infiltration rate, local precipitation, evapotranspiration rate, and many other factors all influence how much you should water.

Products like soil moisture meters can help, and Adam will show you how to use a Moisture Meter to monitor the moisture levels of your farm or garden soil.

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[paulndungu]

Soil water holding capacity particulary field capacity is what we use mostly. Good show sir.

[CastBlastCamp]

Great info, most certainly a topic that needs discussed amongst the drip community. For my veggies & herbs I usually go anywhere from 30mins to at most 1.5 hours every 2-4 days depending on rain and heat in the local area. Hope all is well out your way Adam, stay safe!

[gangirin]

soil moisture meter....thats the best advice, thank you....if we know the moisture level, easy to adjust what ever frequency we need to water and the quantity we need to do

[wolfgangwunschel-bp]

always prof. top content here i see! - there might be even a formula for calculating the ideal amount considering the air temperatures, too...

[southerntulip]

Thank you for your professional advice. There are definitely many variables and some to which I would have never thought of. (Neighbor cut down his tree next door allowing more sun exposure resulting in drying out medium) I am currently trying to figure out how to calculate gph for my set up.

[wolfgangwunschel-bp]

i'd say each drop represents a certain water volume to be counted, so the amount of daily drops gives us some idea about the irrigation done in any spot (would have to build drop counters such as canns put under the dripper for knowing the amount of water that came out) because it's not so much the time it's running automatically each time that counts due to individual quantities of water released by each dripper (some to be adjusted even individually!). soil & air temperature affects a lot due to evaporation - so we should cover the soil always by mulch: f.e. on a 36ºc day, soil surface is measured 70ºc w/o mulch (next morning still 32ºc!). the humidity meter reflects roots' effort to drink the water in a certain depth (lasts 20min. until readings are valid). we variate the automates watering time by 10 - 200% percentage adjustment.

[richard]

I haven’t found a video from you talking about watering to ensure germination. In my raised beds I’ll have cucumbers and peas, etc. I’m assuming that I should start with sprayers but would like some guidance.

If you have please link.

You are a great teacher

Cheers

[wolfgangwunschel-bp]

i'm about to convert a good part of my watering system to drop blumat as an option working w/ rain water gravity fed (drought periods hose fed into the elevated deposits of course) solarpumping it up to the roofs from the rain capture deposits. reasons: 1. large scale use of rain (each cubic m worth about 1$!), 2. posible watering restrictions due to drought soon, 3. more even soil humidity due to sensor valves, 4. keeps on working some while even w/o water supply from the tap due to mancommunity failure (green beans price up to 9€/kg after maroc. earthquake!)

[wolfgangwunschel-bp]

i also suggest saving water making use of the capillary action of the soil: watering it for a short time first, the clay & so on grows soaked by water, afterwards it needs less water in 2. watering run because less water escapes in deeper layers compared to watering all at once. i programmed 5 starts a day, which leaves an autonomy of about 10 days for rechargeable 9v 300mAh batteries for about 100 openings/closings of 2 solenoids. with a 24v AC system there'd be no need of saving batteries f.e. i connected by hose by passes 5 sectors making them 2 only, so the working pressure dropped also from 3 bar to less, which i consider favourable: drops running slowlier allowing soil to soak itself easier i guess. we have some testimonies from greenhouses, where they save 90% of water w/ blumat system maintaining always same soil moisture. (works only w/ aprox. same weight pressure of water tank not getting too empty which makes recalibration necessary, fresh nights about 5ºc also tighten the membrane for a while reducing its capacity to close the valve)

[steelhorses]

If you used hose or tape with 6"spaced emitters vs 12" spacing would that mean half the watering time needed and possibly better coverage?

[joyhamilton]

We have almost all sand for our soil so we have to run our system longer.

[thomaswallis]

Blah, blah, blah. For the average gardener this is a waste of time. Most of what you said was no duh. The only useful thing you described was your soil evaluation. Spot on... When people ask how long, they're looking for a rule of thumb answer.