Hydroponics Made Easy: Drip Irrigation (Drip)
Drip irrigation, micro-irrigation, or simply DRIP – these are all well-established terms among growers for the classic method of watering plants, based on economical water dosing. Read on to find out how it works and what benefits it brings to growers!
In addition to achieving minimal water consumption, drip irrigation makes the watering process significantly more efficient. This is especially true if you grow a larger number of plants.
If you expect a proper harvest in your garden or perhaps in a greenhouse, manual watering is a thing of the past! However, the drip method also finds use when growing herbs in the comfort of home or, conversely, in agriculture on a large scale.
The larger the scale, the greater the water savings. And over the long term, water savings always show. Besides the economic aspect, there is of course also the environmental one. With a drip irrigation system, you certainly will not waste water. At the end of the article, we will also discuss how important the properties of the water you use to water your plants are, as well as the quality of the water source.
What is drip, or how does drip irrigation work in practice?
Drip can sometimes seem unnecessarily complicated to beginner growers, yet the opposite is true. So let us take it step by step. What does a drip irrigation system consist of?
- Water source (tank, well, mains water supply).
- Pump (see image, except when using a tap)
Water distribution, or rather the distribution of tubing (capillaries and hoses), which are connected to the water source. At the end of the capillaries are connected irrigation needles, which are inserted into the soil.
- Reducers, connectors, end caps, valves and various shaping components (connectors, connectors).
Assembling drip irrigation - how do you do it?
- When assembling drip irrigation, the grower’s first task is to lay out the hose around the plants so that it does not cross over itself anywhere, let alone become tangled, and so that water and nutrients, driven from the tank or well by a pump with sufficient flow rate and head, can flow evenly through the irrigation system.
- Next comes the hole punch, with which you make holes in the hose in places that are ideal for irrigation. In addition to ordinary hole punches, you can also make the work easier by using the lever hole punch. For the smallest drip systems with thin-walled distribution piping, in which there are only a few holes, a 3 mm hole punch will suffice.
- A cutter is used to cut the drip tubing.
- Even when making the holes, bear in mind that water and nutrients need to be brought as close as possible to the plant roots. This is made possible by the end capillaries. “Basic” end capillaries are available in the form of capillary needles. However, many growers swear by multi-part capillary distributors with end needles (Topspin). Correct system connection is also essential, as you can see in the image. This will prevent leaks of water with precious nutrients. When connecting, pay particular attention to the correct placement of the seals.
- Thanks to the fact that through capillary needles the watering gets below the surface directly into the substrate, the nutrient solution no longer evaporates into the air afterwards. It is precisely the high rate of water evaporation that is typical of long-outdated manual watering, because with each growing cycle you would use a disproportionately larger amount of water than when you assemble your own drip system.
We must not forget what capillary pressure irrigation means. It is drip irrigation that works with higher water pressure, more precisely from 0.5 bar upwards. This is also associated with a greater water column height, with the equivalent of 0.5 bar being a 5 m water column. It is worthwhile for short water runs of approximately 2 metres and when irrigating only a few plants. The downside of pressure drip irrigation, however, is the uneven distribution of nutrient solution to individual plants. In drip systems of this type, growers therefore use pressure valves (see image), which for a few pounds will ensure that all the plants in the system receive regular watering of the same intensity, regardless of the distance from the water source and regardless of how high the water column leading from the pump is. Different variants of drippers with a pressure valve differ from one another in the amount of watering released per hour. If you decide on pressure drip irrigation, do not forget that you need to choose a pump with a greater head than the starting pressure. If the starting pressure is 0.5 bar, choose a pump whose head is at least 0.6 bar after subtracting the height difference within the whole system.
Our TIP: When working with a drip system, practical waterproof tape can be useful in many situations.
Automatic drip irrigation
Having a DRIP system is an advantage. But automating it will save you even more time and energy. And we dare say that automatic irrigation timing is absolutely essential, especially in summer. At the same time, you will achieve precise watering intervals and frequency according to the current need or, for example, based on the plant variety grown.
You can therefore normally supplement your drip irrigation system with timer switches, or even more advanced irrigation timers. This category is clearly led by the reliable products from TechGrow:
Interval and second timers from the TechGrow brand enable precise irrigation not only in drip systems, but they also serve perfectly in flood-and-drain systems or Aero systems.
Gardeners and growers who care for their plants in a greenhouse have also found automatic solar irrigation to be effective.
For home growers using a grow tent to cultivate herbs, drip hydroponics may be useful, which is perfectly handled on a smaller scale by the hydroponic systems Atami Wilma.
Experienced growers and professionals will find it worthwhile to explore the options offered by GroLab when it comes to automating growing processes.
When automating hydroponic systems, a float switch with gland is also used.
Quality water and its source – that is the absolute basis of drip irrigation!
Not only in the case of drip irrigation, but also in terms of hydroponics in general, whether you are growing plants indoor or outdoor, it is certainly worth considering the following question, which is so important that it has become the subject of a separate article: What water do you use to water your plants? The quality properties of water have a huge influence on crop quality and growing results. Beautifully clean water free of all sediment is a basic prerequisite for achieving a beautiful harvest. Sediment contained in the water will probably cause the tubing to clog and create other problems, because of which your hydroponic efforts in the garden, greenhouse or even inside a grow box will not be effective. Likewise, if the water source you use for irrigation is somehow contaminated, water treatment and filtration come into play.
Water treatment in growing practice takes place on several levels:
- Adjustment of pH.
- Reverse osmosis (RO) is the most effective solution for dealing with practically all impurities of organic and inorganic origin. On this topic, we again recommend a separate article. More advanced reverse osmosis units can also handle total deionisation of water, which is of course the ideal state.
- Water filters. If the basis of your watering is tap water from a municipal source, which often contains chlorine in amounts that are very harmful to plants, a carbon water filter will also help. A mechanical filter captures larger sediments. Irritec inline water filter is suitable for every water system. For drip irrigation systems, the safety filter with push-fit connectors is intended, and both components are often at the same time an important part of the water distribution (see above). Where there are large height differences between the tank and the pots, it is advisable to use a check valve or non-return valve.
What should you watch out for when it comes to drip?
Although drip irrigation has no outright disadvantages, the experience of countless growers should be reason enough to keep the practical observations below in mind:
- If you have a drip system outdoors in the garden, it is often exposed to “attacks” by rodents or various other pests, or it commonly becomes the object of unwanted attention from pets. Therefore, and not only for that reason, be sure to check your drip system from time to time along its entire length to make sure everything is as it should be and that no damage has occurred anywhere, which you can avoid, among other things, by ensuring there are no sharp objects near the hoses and that the hoses do not run over sharp edges.
- Watering in the true sense of the word means water and fertilisers dissolved in it. And it is precisely these that are the reason why regular maintenance of your drip system is important before the start of each growing cycle. It is enough to thoroughly flush the water distribution using products such as OxyPlus or T.A. FlashClean (formerly G.H. FloraKleen).
If you would like to ask us anything about drip irrigation, we are here for you at the well-known e-mail address info@higarden.eu and we look forward to your questions. We will also be happy to help you choose specific products for an effective and reliable drip system.
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