Help with drip irrigating palms

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

My entire garden is wired up to deliver drip irrigation. However, due to repeated clogging of lines and a lot of problems, I ended up using micro-bubblers. Now that I have a water re-use system, (french drains that re-capture run-off), I can see the staggering amount of water that is simply wasted since a large portion of the water simply runs back out the bottom. One of my zones runs at 10-12 gallons/minute for the entire zone, which for one hour will consume a staggering 600-800 gallons. I know my palms don't need that much water. What's worse is that those 600 gallons don't actually penetrate the soil very well. The stuff must be going down mole holes or something like that.

My hope is to reduce that by at least half, if not more. I know Matty has managed to put in a drip system that seems to be quite successful. So I have some simple questions for Matty or for anyone else who could answer.

1) Obviously I need a filter to keep the lines from clogging. What do folks recommend? 250 Mesh (61 micron)? Any special models to consider?

2) What's the best way to flush out the system? I've seen crap in the pipes, which may explain why I have gotten rot from overhead watering.

3) What volume flow works best for what size palms? 1/4gph, 1/2 gph or more? And how many per palm?

4) How long to water for the drip to be effective? Would one hour be enough to penetrate the ground?

Thanks.

[MattyB]

I use DIG brand drip stuff because you can buy it all at home depot.

1) DIG comes with 155 mesh screen filter but since you're using collected water, not city water, if you can find a 250 mesh screen that would be even better.

2) During initial install, before I pop in any emitters, I thoroughly flush out the lines. I use 3/4" PVC as a header that runs to the general areas that I'm going to be irrigating and then T off of there to my 1/2" polyline laterals. During initial install of the PVC, I flush it all out and cap each T/pop up before I continue on to constructing the 1/2" polylines. For flushing out the 1/2" polylines, I leave all the ends open, run the valve for about 10 minutes, and then start capping/kinking off the downslope lines first, until only the uppermost line is still running, then turn off the system and cap that last top line. Theoretically, the entire system is now clean and free of any debris. Now you can go back and start the process of installing emitters. I guess you have an existing system so just open up all the ends of your 1/2" polyline and let it run for a few minutes, closing the lower lines first and work your way up.

3 & 4) This comes down to your soil, slope, climate, etc. I don't like to use anything less than 1 gph emitters because I suspect they'd be more prone to clogging due to the low flow rate.

Here's some examples of what I'm running and you'll have to figure out what works for your palms by trial and error:

Rainforest zone: in mid-late summer when my zones are at max, an average palm gets 16 gallons of water per week; (2) 2gph emitters ran for 2 hours, twice a week. A large water loving palm like a Royal gets 24 gallons per week; (3) 2gph emitters ran for 2 hours, twice a week. For most of the year this zone is only set to run for about 1 hour, so half of my summer max example above.

Fruit tree zone: I figure that my fruit trees need a deeper watering and can penetrate the rock below so I planted palms on that zone that can tolerate less frequent watering. In summer at max for Butia, Dypsis onilahensis, Bizmarckia....(2) 1gph emitters ran for 4 hours, once a week.

For an even drier Parajubaea type zone: (2) 1 gph emitters ran for 2 hours, once a week. Not much water here, so I'll have to keep an eye as things get larger to see if I need to step it up, but so far everything is happy to be on drip and no more hose watering.

Ya know, I was thinking how I went about initially estimating what the water needs of the palms were and I think I know how I did it. I did all my watering with a hose and even sometimes filling up buckets and carrying them over to palms. So, I know roughly how long it takes my hose to fill a bucket. A bucket is 5 gallons. So when I'm watering my palms I can say, OK, I stand here for about 20 seconds and water, I'd guess that's about 5 gallons, I hit this tree twice as I'm walking around, so I'm probably giving it about 10 gallons every time I water. If that works fine for the palm then I set up my emitters to match and because drip is way more efficient, the palm usually does great.

Hope that helps.

[Perito]

Hi Axel, here are some of the things that have worked for me when I set up a drip system.

Water leaving the valve goes through a 'wye' filter, then a pressure regulator, (Not sure about mesh size, regulator is 30 PSI).

You can flush the system by first undoing the cap on the filter. Then take off the 'bell' and clean the screen with a toothbrush. Next open the ends of the lines and run a small amount of water through in order to flush out debris.

I have used 'Flag' emitters for years and they seem very durable and can be cleaned if they clog. 2GPH are used most frequently but I use 1GPH and 4GPH where I think it is appropriate. I use 2 emitters on small palms but more when necessary for larger ones.

45 minutes to an hour should be sufficient. Add emitters or increase times (or both) to deliver more water.

[sonoranfans]

If the soil is high drainage, micro sprinklers are much better than drippers or the wasteful bubblers. I use 2 gal/hr clog proof button drippers(home depot or lowes?) in organic rich areas, but microsprinkers in sandy areas. Flag drippers are always clogging and popping their tops. I have always found that the 1 gallon and lower volume drippers clog easily. when your soil drains very fast and doesnt absorb water(low organic or low clay content) gravity wins out over capillary action and you get a very small cylindrical wet zone for each dripper, leaving most root areas dry. If you have high organic or clay content capillary action make the wet zone wide in radius about each dripper. If you have the high drainage sand, depth is easily penetrated in 30-45 mins using a 7-14 gallon per hour microsprinkler. If you have low drainage clay, depth wetting can take hours. You can buy a moisure probe or you can dig to find out the soil drainage. Also 1/4" tubing from the pvc to the dripper should be kept shorter than 10' preferably 6'. this tubing creates pressure loss and if you make it too long you may not get adequate flow. You can study a drip strategy online with all considerations.

[Matt in SD]

Good advice all around here already. Just wanted to mention that I initially set up my drip system with something other than DIG brand drippers and had all kinds of clogging issues. Had to do routine walk-through's and replace drippers. I switched to the DIG brand, mainly the 2 gph button drippers and these rarely clog...could almost say they never clog, but have found a few clogged ones over the years. If you're already using DIG and they're clogging, then it's probably a water issue, and like MattyB said, maybe you need additional filtration.

Also, with the DIG drippers, when they are clogged, you can usually unclog them by pulling the dripper off the tubing while the system is running, then press the dripper backwards (reverse flow) onto the tubing end with water coming out. This works for me 90% of the time to unclog them.

I use 2 gph drippers exclusively on palms and other water loving tropicals. 2-4 drippers per plant depending on the soil type and size of plant. Also, in areas that are more densely planted, even larger palms may only have 2 drippers since there are lots of drippers in the area and I figure they are probably getting water from nearby drippers anyways. I water 45 minutes to 1 hour per zone, ranging from every 5th day in winter to every 2nd or 3rd day in summer.

Matt

[Tropicdoc]

Glad to read this thread. I'm about to connect a rain barrel to my gutter downspout and connect a drip system to it to water my container ranch. Reasons are not water conservation... which is not an issue in subtropical Lousiana. Reason is time spent hand-watering palms, and chemicals/ salts in hose water that will be detrimental to potted palms. Any advice would be appreciated. I have read that as opposed to using emiiters in a a low pressure system, it may be best to just poke a hole in the tubing.

[KennyRE317]

last summer I set up my yard with traditional PVC pipes, valves, and T'd them up as if I was doing regular sprinklers but I knew I was going to do a drip system. when I was done with that I cut the pipes right after the valves and put in a filter for zones that were going to be setup with drip (5 of my 6 zones are drip) and the pressure reducer. where I had T'd up from the pvc for popup sprinkers I put another filter and converted it to take in a 1/2" drip line.

i use 2 drip emitters per plant set to run an hour a day. depending on plant i'll do any combination of 1gal or 2gal emitters. I manually tested the zones every other week just to make sure everything's running properly and haven't had any issues with clogging yet. i think the pressure compensating drippers are "self cleaning"

edit: a lot of my palms aren't that large but i put the emitters close to the plant aimed in different directions, i put them close since all the roots are right there at the moment since most were planted fairly recently and if one emitter stops at least i have another that's still working and can get water to the plant until i swap emitters

Edited May 16, 2014 by KennyRE317

[Mike Evans]

I plan on adding some drip irrigation to my well sprinkler system. Does anyone find that their drippers clog from calcium build up over time? What is the best dripper or sprayer to use for 25 gal containers?

[MattyB]

For a few palms that I have in containers I use the lowest, 1/2 gph emitters. For the 5 gallons I use (1) dripper, for 30 gallon pot I use (2) drippers. Also, I add dirt to these pots so that it helps slow the drainage down so the capillary action has time to spread out the water.

[sonoranfans]

I plan on adding some drip irrigation to my well sprinkler system. Does anyone find that their drippers clog from calcium build up over time? What is the best dripper or sprayer to use for 25 gal containers?

Mike, if you have a bunch of containers a single 360 degree microsprayer can water at least (4) 25 gallon containers and perhaps a few smaller ones. Some have 360 degree spray, some are 90, 180, depending on what you want. the 2 gallon button drippers last a long time before any clogging with salts and cant be removed and soaked in a cleaner and then put back on. the smaller 1 and 1/2 gallon ones clog a lot quicker with salts from hard water as the aperatures are smaller. I had used these for 6 years in arizona with no replacement and salts build up faster in drippers there due to the very hard water and the low humidity/high evaporation. At my current place the 2 gallon ones are 4+ years in, no clogging no replacement.

[Patrick]

There's a company in Norcal called Dripworks and they have just about everything that I've ever needed for microsprinklers. I think they're online, and I get a nice catalogue every now and then in the mail

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Patrick, I am trying to move away from micro-sprinklers as each of my irrigation zone running on that stuff is eating up 600-900 gallons per hour. There is very little water savings at all with micro-sprinklers. I am trying to replace all of the micro-sprinklers with a network of 1GPH drippers to bring the water usage down by a factor of 10.

I am running a test with a home-built small manifold with drip heads and filter that can be attached to a hose with 1GPH emitters. We will see what 1GPH will do, I believe it's going to be significantly more effective than what I have running right now.

[richnorm]

I run 2lph=0.5gph on clay but run them for 5-10 hours at a time though some years no irrigation is required due to summer rains. Plants that need more just get more drippers as I think it is best not to mix sizes. I also use pressure compensated which are twice the cost but deliver a more reliable output and cope with the slope really well.

cheers

Richard

[sonoranfans]

Patrick, I am trying to move away from micro-sprinklers as each of my irrigation zone running on that stuff is eating up 600-900 gallons per hour. There is very little water savings at all with micro-sprinklers. I am trying to replace all of the micro-sprinklers with a network of 1GPH drippers to bring the water usage down by a factor of 10.

I am running a test with a home-built small manifold with drip heads and filter that can be attached to a hose with 1GPH emitters. We will see what 1GPH will do, I believe it's going to be significantly more effective than what I have running right now.

Axel I didnt see you even mention microsprinklers, just micro bubblers. Bubblers are of course much more wasteful in sandy soil as they channel much more readily.

[thallo]

On 5/16/2014 at 7:53 AM, MattyB said:

Rainforest zone: in mid-late summer when my zones are at max, an average palm gets 16 gallons of water per week; (2) 2gph emitters ran for 2 hours, twice a week. A large water loving palm like a Royal gets 24 gallons per week; (3) 2gph emitters ran for 2 hours, twice a week. For most of the year this zone is only set to run for about 1 hour, so half of my summer max example above.

 

Fruit tree zone: I figure that my fruit trees need a deeper watering and can penetrate the rock below so I planted palms on that zone that can tolerate less frequent watering. In summer at max for Butia, Dypsis onilahensis, Bizmarckia....(2) 1gph emitters ran for 4 hours, once a week.

 

For an even drier Parajubaea type zone: (2) 1 gph emitters ran for 2 hours, once a week. Not much water here, so I'll have to keep an eye as things get larger to see if I need to step it up, but so far everything is happy to be on drip and no more hose watering.

I’ve been reading through old threads while I’m setting up my drip system. Are you still using these durations and frequencies in the rainforest and parajubaea zones? Are you growing Beccariophoenix alfredii or Rhopalostylis sapida or baueri? If so, are they in your rainforest zones?

Thanks in advance!

[manuel2021]

1 hour every 2 days, drippers inside tubes 16 mm.