[TinyFargo]

I have a 9' x 40' section of yard that runs along the southern side of my house. We used to have a raised bed for tomatoes and cucumbers, a paver walkway, and grass. The paver walkway is gone, and this spring I pulled out the walls of the raised bed (the wood was all rotted) and tilled the whole thing along with a bunch of compost. The whole thing is going to be a vegetable garden now - tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots, beets, chard, peas, beans, cantaloupe, peppers, and kale. I've got it designed so that I'll have a walkway down the middle and plants on either side.

My question is around the irrigation. Running along one side, there is presently a buried sprinkler zone with 6 Rainbird 1800 series sprinkler heads. They do a decent job watering it when it's just grass, but as soon as anything grows, that won't meet the need. I want to convert this to drip irrigation to effectively water my vegetable plants.

Rainbird makes a kit that converts a sprinkler head into a manifold with 6 1/4" sprinkler lines, and they make a kit that converts a sprinkler head into 1/2" line, which would then be pierced with smaller "branch" lines going to emitters.

At this point, I'm trying to decide between getting 3 of the 1/4" manifold kits to go directly to the plants (and 3 caps), or getting a single 1/2" kit and then using that to run the zone (and 5 caps). Any thoughts / opinions on what would be better? Is there a maximum distance that the 1/4" line can run? Can I put "T" connections directly in the 1/4" line?


1/4" kit: https://www.rainbird.com/products/emitter-conversion-kit
1/2" kit: https://www.rainbird.com/products/riser-connection-kit

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[djlandkpl]

I'm assuming you are going to remove the other 1800 heads. You don't want to mix heads with drip due to the different watering time requirements. You may not need a head conversion kit. Depending upon your installation, you could tie directly into the main line.
I would use dripline vs. drip emitters. You get more planting flexibility with dripline.

https://www.rainbird.com/products/gardeners-drip-kit

 

[TinyFargo]

Thanks for your thoughts!

I was not planning to remove the other 1800 heads that I wasn't using; I was planning to just cap off the spray heads I wasn't going to use. Something like this:
https://www.rainbird.com/products/spray-head-caps

Totally understand the point about not mixing spray and drip on the same zone. Is capping good enough?

I'm not sure I can use the kit that you suggested because there is no hose spigot near where I'm putting in the drip irrigation system and it looks like that attaches to a hose bib. The only hose spigot is entirely on the other side of my house. The other thing is I really would like to use something in conjunction with the sprinkler system's controller, which includes not only a timer, but control via my phone, a rain sensor, and automatic seasonal adjustment. Is there some way to connect that directly to a sprinkler line rather than to a hose spigot? I guess I don't know how the 1800 heads attach to the sprinkler lines since I didn't put those in myself.

 

[djlandkpl]

Sorry, I missed the hose connection in the kit I linked. If you want to keep it simple, without digging up the head, use the riser connection kit in conjunction with drip line. Capping the old heads is fine. You will want to open the caps when your system is blown out in the fall to ensure the body doesn't stay full of water.

 

[TinyFargo]

Sorry, I missed the hose connection in the kit I linked. If you want to keep it simple, without digging up the head, use the riser connection kit in conjunction with drip line. Capping the old heads is fine. You will want to open the caps when your system is blown out in the fall to ensure the body doesn't stay full of water.

I did not even think about the blowing out of the lines... thanks for the advice. I think I had it figured out now. Will post again if I have any other questions!