Best Drip Irrigation System For Potted Plants
Best Drip Irrigation System For Potted Plants – Home / Gardening Techniques / Container Gardening / How to Install a DIY Drip Irrigation System for Potted Plants
An automatic watering system for outdoor plants can make life easier and save you tons of time. It’s super easy to set up your own, and doesn’t take much time (it’s totally worth every second!). Follow these easy step-by-step instructions to install a DIY drip irrigation system for potted plants.
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We have a full sun area behind our house that I always thought would be perfect for growing, but it’s under the eaves so it doesn’t get much rain.
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My husband planted a few pots of peppers last year, but watering all those pots by hand in the summer heat became a major chore. We were in a drought last year, so we had to manually water these pots a few times a day. Not fun!
My husband told me he wanted to line the area with chili pots this year, so we decided to add a drip irrigation system to easily water our container plants.
It can be as simple as adding overhead sprinklers to our greenhouse, putting in a DIY drip system for potted plants.
Plus we had some poly tubing left over from that project, so we were able to use it for this project – bonus!
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Think of a drip irrigation system as an automatic watering system for pots and containers. It hooks right into your garden hose or spigot so when it’s turned on, all your pots are watered at the same time.
You can turn on the water manually or set it on an automatic timer to create a self-watering system for potted plants (trust me, a timer is totally worth it and it’s not too expensive to buy yourself!).
Installing a drip irrigation system for potted plants has many benefits for you and your plants. The main benefit is convenience, and let me tell you, an automatic drip irrigation system makes container gardening so much easier!
Not only do self-watering pots make your life easier, they are also good for your plants and ensure they are getting the right amount of moisture.
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Consistent watering will keep your potted plants happy and healthy, helping to prevent problems like blossom end rot.
Do healthy plants have fewer problems with pests and disease and produce tons more delicious food for us? What’s not to love?
Depending on how many potted plants you have, you may need a drip irrigation kit to set up your entire system.
You can buy a smaller kit if you have 8 or less containers, or you can get a larger kit like this one that works to automatically water up to 20 containers.
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Drip irrigation kits are a great way to start and include complete instructions for setting everything up. Some kits come with a timer.
But even when you start with a drip irrigation kit, you may still need to buy some additional parts (for example, most don’t come with a pressure regulator). So be sure to read the details of what is included in the kit.
Of course, you can also design your own custom drip irrigation system, which we did for our setup since we already have the main pipes and a few other parts.
Step 1: At, attach the connectors to the hose or spigot – It will be easier to hook everything up if you attach the connectors to your hose or spigot first. So get a backflow preventer, pressure regulator and hose fitting for this step.
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Start by attaching the backflow preventer to your hose or outdoor spigot (it simply screws on). Next, you attach the pressure regulator, and end the faucet fitting (it’s screws too – no tools needed!).
Basically, you’ll be putting together the garden hose attachments in this exact order (backflow preventer, pressure regulator, faucet installation).
Step 2: Attach the 1/2″ Poly Tubing to the Hose Fitting – Take one end of your 1/2″ poly mainline tubing and push it into the open end of the faucet hose fitting. Once you push it in, pull the collar down on the hose fitting piece and tighten it to secure the tubing.
You may want to kink the tubes and turn on the water to make sure there are no leaks at this point, otherwise you can wait to test everything in step 7.
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Step 3: Figure Out Your Drip Irrigation System Layout – The next drip system installation step is to determine how far apart the drip heads will be so you know where to install the micro tubes.
We simply spaced the pots where we wanted them to be and then laid the poly tubing hose in front of them (tip: let the tubing sit in the sun for a while to warm up first, it’s easier to lay it flat when it’s warm).
Then we measured where each pot would be and marked the poly tubing needed to add the drip tube lines to each of the drippers.
Once we have everything measured, we cut the tubes at the end using our PVC cutting tool (you can use a PVC pipe saw to cut the tubes instead), and the tube is covered with an end cap.
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Step 4: Figure out how long the drip lines will be – Next we measure how long each piece of micro tubing should be for the drip lines.
It’s simply from the spot you marked on the main tube, to where the drip head is inside the pot.
We added several extra inches to the length of each piece of micro tubing so it was loose enough to allow us to move the pots around a bit if we wanted to (we did this and it worked really well).
Step 5: Install Micro Tubing – Adding drip lines and micro sprinkler heads is easy.
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For drip line installation, punch a hole (using a drip irrigation hole punch) in the main line poly tubing where you want to insert the drip lines (these are the spots you marked on the tubing in step 3).
Don’t panic if you hit the hole in the wrong place. I know it’s not ideal to make a mistake, but if you end up punching a hole in the wrong place…well, that’s why they make goofy plugs! It’s good to have them on hand just in case.
Next you attach the drip line connector to the main tube first, then attach the micro tube drip hose to the other end of the connector.
Step 6: Install Irrigation Drippers – Installing dripper heads is very easy. You basically plug them into the open end of the micro tubes, and then place them in your container.
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Our dripper micro heads came with spikes to hold them in place so they stay where we put them.
We concentrated the microheads in each of our pots, to one side of the base of the plant(s). Be careful not to damage any tender roots or seedlings as you push the irrigation spikes into the soil.
Step 7: Test Your Irrigation Setup – Before burying the main line, test everything to make sure everything is working without leaks. You definitely don’t want a leak.
It is also a good idea to adjust the drip heads at this point. You can control the amount of water that comes out as the top of the head twists.
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We adjusted each one to make sure they weren’t spraying outside the pots and that they were all working properly.
Step 8: Secure the Poly Tubes – After everything was installed and tested, we secured the main tubes to the ground with some 1/2″ drip irrigation tubing stakes.
The stake clips into the main tube, making
securing easier. Then we buried the pipes in mulch to give it a clean look.
Note, you can install your poly tubes in front of your pots like we did here. That way, the micro tubes run behind the pots and aren’t as obvious.
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But it works well either way. (We have set up in front of us to make it easy for you to take photos)
Step 9: Set a Timer for Automatic Watering – Lastly, we set our hose timer to run on a schedule so we never have to worry about watering these pots again (this is especially nice when we’re on vacation!).
Once your automatic drip irrigation system is up and running, I recommend checking your pots regularly to make sure they are getting the right amount of water. Then you can adjust your timer to get it right.
When we get enough rain we turn off the drip irrigation timer and increase the length or
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