Calculating the Water Flow Available

Start by calculating how much water flow you have available (and in turn how many drippers and sprayers you can operate at one time). To do this, simply run water from your faucet into a 5-gallon pail and time how long it takes to fill it. If it fills in one minute you know you have a flow of 5 gallons per minute (or 300 gallons per hour); if it takes 2 minutes, it’s 2 1/2 gallons per minute flow (150 gallons per hour), etc.

Remember that if water is being used elsewhere in the house (a shower or dishwasher, for example), it will significantly affect the flow to your irrigation lines.

Planning Your Garden

Now that you know how much water flow is available, you can plan the number of emitters to run on each line. Ideally you will be able to water all your plants at once. However, that isn’t always the case. If your planned usage is greater than the available water flow, you will need to break your system into separate lines to run at different times.

Planning allows you to plan the installation before buying any parts. Measure and sketch out your gardens and determine which plants or which areas you want to water. Choose the emitters you would like to use to water these plants and mark them in position on your plan.

All hose-end watering devices, such as sprinklers, soaker hoses, drippers, bubblers or misting jets, are called emitters.

Header Hoses & Fittings

Add up the outputs of all the emitters on your plan. If they add up to more than the available water flow from your faucet, you will need to break the watering system into zones. Each zone is run at a different time so they don’t compete for the water flow. A common way to zone your watering system is to put your back yard on one line and front yard on another, and perhaps your vegetable garden on yet another.

Choose the header hose (main line) for each zone. If you need more than 100', use the 5/8” hose, which gives better flow over longer distances; otherwise, 1/2” hose is fine. Add the hose to your drawing, including any extra fittings you need, such as elbows or T-connectors, as well as a faucet attachment.

A header hose delivers water from the source to the watering system.

Feeder Line & Fittings

Add any feeder lines to the drawing. These are 1/4” tubes that come off the header hose and are needed to run certain emitters. They are also used to run a line up to a hanging basket or rigid riser.

Feeder lines connect the header hose to individual emitters when creating an irrigation system.

Water Regulation

If your water pressure is much over 30 psi (or if you don’t know what the pressure is) you should install a pressure regulator to keep the fittings from blowing off .

Laying Out the Main Header Line for Each Zone

Once your planning is done and the pieces are purchased, lay out the header hose for each zone in your garden and add T-connectors or elbow connectors as needed to bring the water to your plants.

Attaching the Emitters

When the main header hose is installed you are ready to attach the drippers, sprayers and sprinklers. Depending on the emitter you choose, you will either attach it directly to the header hose or to a 1/4” feeder line coming from the header hose. You will need to punch a small hole in the header hose to insert the emitter or a 1/4”connector. If you are punching a lot of holes it will be worth your while to get the professional hole punch, which makes a series of holes quickly and easily. If you make a mistake the holes can easily be filled with hole plugs. Once you have attached all emitters, add a compression end (also called an end connector) to seal the end of the header hose.

Testing the System and Making Adjustments

Finally, test your system to make sure everything is working as planned. Zone by zone, turn the water on and walk down the line, examining each emitter. Make sure each one is working and that the adjustable outputs are set to exactly the range and flow that you want. You may find that you will need to add more emitters here and there and adjust the flow on some emitters to greater or lesser flow.

From our 100’ Soaker Kit, great for watering plants that do not like to get their leaves wet, to our Gravity Feed Watering Kit, when you want to use your rain barrel as your water source, we offer irrigation kits to suit a wide variety of gardens.

These kits include all the required components and let you get a quick start on your irrigation project. Since all of our irrigation parts are compatible with these kits, expanding your system is easy.