Expert Tips: Building a Manual Watering System

Full care for garden and garden plants implies their mandatory and regular watering, not only in hot summers. Often, watering is required both at the end of a dry spring and in autumn, when plants need special moisture-charging watering, which helps the wood and roots of trees and shrubs to prepare for the winter cold. Without watering in a dry summer in your garden, the lawn will turn yellow by early to mid-June, the yield of fruits and berries will decrease significantly, and vegetables may not ripen at all.

Advantages of the automatic system

The most effective way to organize irrigation in a garden plot is to organize an automatic irrigation system, which can be equipped with sectors with drip irrigation. In general, an automatic irrigation system consists of a pumping station or a pump connected to a water pressure tank (water tank), a controller for controlling solenoid valves that open the channels of the PVC pipeline at the right time to supply water to sprinklers and droppers.

To make a full-fledged automatic system is very expensive. Gardeners are often limited to the mechanical version of the irrigation system, when conventional mechanical taps are installed instead of the controller and solenoid valves. In this case, watering starts no longer under the control of automation, but manually. However, the irrigation system itself is equipped according to the same principles as the automatic version: PVC pipes are buried in the ground, and sprinklers, droppers and special water sockets are mounted in the right places in the ground, to which you can connect a hose for manual irrigation.

The universal connector on the hose makes it easy to replace manual sprinkler with water pistol or oscillating sprinkler

Versatility of the manual system

The specificity and complexity of organizing an automatic and mechanical irrigation system is not only that their creation requires considerable financial investments, but also that high-quality systems of this type are best laid even before planting. The fact is that the design of an automatic system involves dividing the site into irrigation sectors, the area and size of which is designed based on the characteristics of the garden plot, as well as based on the size and habitus (appearance) of the planted plants. In case of incorrect design, one has to either re-lay the underground pipeline or replant the plants. The manual irrigation system is devoid of these shortcomings.

A flexible watering hose can be moved to the right place at any time, and an unsuccessfully selected sprinkler can be easily replaced with a more suitable one.

Hose selection

Let's figure out how to choose accessories for a manual irrigation system. If you do not take into account the need to choose a pumping station or a garden pump and a water pressure tank, which are usually bought not specifically for the irrigation system, but for organizing a general water supply for a summer house or a private house, the choice of a hose is the most important point.

Among the options on the market there are instances of both European production and Chinese origin. The most common diameters of garden hoses used for watering are 1/2, 3/4, 5/8, 1 inch. The available hose length in most cases ranges from 20 m to 50 m. When choosing the option that suits you, keep in mind that longer hoses should be of a larger diameter, since this is the only way to maintain the water pressure necessary for the sprinklers to work properly. We advise you to purchase hoses from well-known manufacturers of garden equipment: GARDENA, Hozelock, Karcher, AL-KO.

Pay attention to the pressure limit of the hose. It must be higher than the limit in the water supply system, otherwise the hose will break during use at maximum pump power. Also note that inexpensive hoses may contain components that are unsafe for health (barium, lead). Naturally, it is not recommended to use such hoses not only for supplying drinking water, but also for watering plants.

It is very important to have diagonal reinforcement in the hose, which prevents the product from deforming. Hoses may consist of several layers of polymeric material. The number of layers directly affects the duration of their service. One- and two-layer products break most easily when bent and other mechanical influences. For more or less long-term and comfortable use, it makes sense to purchase three-five-layer hoses that do not deform when empty under their own weight and are designed for operation for 5-15 years, respectively.

For watering plants do not use a hard jet of high pressure: it can damage the soft tissues of plants and erode the soil around the roots

Necessary accessories and fittings

In order to connect the hose to the water supply and actually water the plants, it is necessary to equip the manual watering system with a number of parts. The diameter of the accessories for the irrigation system is selected based on the diameter of the garden hose (1/2, 3/4, 5/8, 1 inch). The hose itself is connected to the tap using a threaded or threadless fitting on the pipe and a universal connector on the hose. A sprinkler is also connected to the other end of the hose using a connector. In the latter case, you can use a connector with an aquastop, which is able to stop the flow of water when the sprinkler is turned off.

The hand sprinkler for watering can form different types of water jet (power jet, ring spray, mist, etc.). Please note that it can be replaced with a static sprinkler, which is installed on the ground for independent watering of plants, or a water gun, which can also be used to wash surfaces. For convenient storage and movement of a long hose, it is good to purchase a special hose reel or stand for the hose.

Manual watering, as well as automatic, can be organized as a system of branched hoses. To extend the line and divide the watering hose into different directions, use standard plastic adapters and distributors, which are also connected to universal connectors. In this case, the diameter of the connections at the inlet and outlet of the distributor may differ. In addition, a standard two-way repair sleeve can be used to repair a cracked hose, which is installed in place of the cut out cracked section of the hose.

Sprinkler selection

The main criteria for choosing a suitable sprinkler or water gun is the scope of their intended application, as well as the size and shape of the area to be watered. If you choose a hand sprinkler or water gun that can work in different modes and generate different types of jet, keep in mind that a powerful hard jet, as well as a continuous flat jet, is mainly used for cleaning surfaces. Directly for watering delicate plants, a jet is used in the form of large drops, small sprays or fog. On most hand sprinklers, the spray pattern can be changed for both watering and surface cleaning applications. At the same time, the maximum pressure for which hand sprinklers are designed is often lower than the maximum pressure of water guns, where only the pressure and width of the water flow can be adjusted.

Drip irrigation system allows maximum efficiency use such valuable moisture in the days of summer heat

When choosing a static - oscillating or circular - sprinkler, which is installed on the ground, you need to find out the properties of the material from which the product is made. Inexpensive sprinklers are often made of plastic that is not UV resistant, which significantly reduces their service life. When choosing a circle, sector, or rectangular sprinkler, check whether they can be used to adjust the distance and area to be watered, and correlate their maximum pressure readings with the corresponding parameters of the hose and garden pump.

Manual drip irrigation system

For normal development, some plants (for example, strawberries, blueberries or cucumbers) require regular, and ideally continuous moisture. In this case, instead of using an automatic system or manual irrigation, you can organize an elementary drip system. To do this, you will need a tank of water, which must be installed on a small elevation to create pressure, and a system of micro-pipes that connect to the tank at the outlet. Here you can use special "sweating" hoses that provide moisture to the plants along their entire length, or ordinary drip hoses that make it possible to water through the appropriate holes right under the root of the plants.