Garden innovations - drip irrigation

An efficient greenhouse irrigation system can be fairly simple to install and, in most cases, will save you hours of problems with watering. They are also, of course, possible to use when hosepipe bans are in operation! The key ingredient for a greenhouse irrigation system is to have a properly-designed plan and to talk to an experienced installer, even if you decide to go ahead and do the work yourself, as many people don't fully understand the relationship between bore, pressure and pipe length in designing a cost effective system.

The first step is to evaluate the best method. Drip irrigation is very advantageous when plant containers are over four litres in size. Greenhouse hanging baskets are also well-suited to drip methods. This system, which is also know as trickle or micro-irrigation is a method that applies water slowly to the roots of plants, by depositing the water either on the soil surface or directly to the root zone through a network of valves, pipes, and tubing. The goal is to minimise water usage and fertilizer as well as to reduce the labour of watering a large greenhouse, so it's not just the piping of the drip system that is important but the correct installation of the valves and pipes into various pots and flat beds to ensure the best use of space and water.

Drip irrigation can also use devices called micro-spray heads, which spray water in an extremely small area. These are generally used on tree and vine crops for commercial growers rather than hobby gardeners, but increasingly, sub-surface drip irrigation or SDI uses permanently or temporarily buried dripper-line or drip tape is used for row crop irrigation where water supplies are limited and for lawns in newly built properties to ensure grass watering is cost and resource effective.

Garden innovation drip irrigation photograph by Okaggi, used under a creative commons attribution licence