Irrigation for pots hanging baskets and containers
Healthy plants in pots and containers can look stunning; they
enhance patios and balconies with colour and can soften hard scaping areas.
Pots and hanging baskets have a tendency to dry out very quickly and need to be
watered on a daily basis in the summer. This is very easy to do when you have
an automatic drip irrigation system.
The first thing to do is to make a simple drawing on which
you plot the position of all the pots, hanging baskets and containers you want
to water as you will need to lay tubing as close as you can to the containers. I
should really start by explaining what products and different components you
will need to purchase and I am presuming you have a water source you can link
the system to.
1. Outdoor tap
2. Battery operated timer. This will screw directly on to the tap and have a ¾” male thread outlet
3. Tubing. This is usually black plastic pipe that takes the water to the pots. It comes in a number of different sizes, in the UK the most common sizes are 20 mm and 16 mm in diameter.
4. Barb fittings. These fittings are used to extend the system or split the system and help you go around corners without kinking the pipe.
5. Micro tube. This is a small pipe 4 mm in diameter that fits on to the 20 mm tubing and feeds the drippers or micro sprinklers
6. Sprinklers. There are lots of different types of drippers and sprinklers on the market and I will not go into too much detail in this Blog. If you need more information please feel free to ask.
7. Punch tool. This is used to make a hole in the tubing so that you can insert a barbed coupling into the tubing to connect the micro tubing.
2. Battery operated timer. This will screw directly on to the tap and have a ¾” male thread outlet
3. Tubing. This is usually black plastic pipe that takes the water to the pots. It comes in a number of different sizes, in the UK the most common sizes are 20 mm and 16 mm in diameter.
4. Barb fittings. These fittings are used to extend the system or split the system and help you go around corners without kinking the pipe.
5. Micro tube. This is a small pipe 4 mm in diameter that fits on to the 20 mm tubing and feeds the drippers or micro sprinklers
6. Sprinklers. There are lots of different types of drippers and sprinklers on the market and I will not go into too much detail in this Blog. If you need more information please feel free to ask.
7. Punch tool. This is used to make a hole in the tubing so that you can insert a barbed coupling into the tubing to connect the micro tubing.
Installing the drip irrigation
Lay the tubing from the tap to your pots, use the barb elbows to do around corners so that the tubing does not kink. You will need to cut the tube at the position of the corner and insert the elbow. To make it easier to insert the barbed fitting, dip the end of the tube in a saucepan of hot water. This will make the tube soft and the barbed fitting will be easier to push into the tube. Once the tubing is in place, punch a hole into the tubing next to each pot and insert the small barbed coupling onto which you will connect a length of micro tubing and connect the tubing to the micro sprinkler in the pot. Try and do this behind the pot so that it is less visible.
Please feel free to comment or ask questions I will be regularly adding information on all types of irrigation on my Blog. Feed back would be most appreciated.
detailed information about irrigation system
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! We travel quite a bit and a neighbor waters our plants for us. We could do this instead and save so much time and I wouldn’t worry about forgetting to water too. Thank you!