Dripper kits are one of the greatest miracles. You don’t realize how wasteful sprinklers or even hand watering is until you have installed drip irrigation. Once you know what it is, then you can realize why it works and finally have a lot of fun installing all those accessories.
What it is - If you come from the Home Improvement school of home improvement, you probably believe that bigger is better and you always need MORE POWER. I used to believe that and boy was I wrong. A drip system is a series of pipes (possibly the same ones you use for your sprinklers) connected to small tubes, which in turn have a variety of connectors on the end. The principle is that you direct the water to the exact place you want it rather than covering a large general area like a sprinkler does. The various connectors and end attachments simply help you bring the water to the plants and then distribute it to them.
Why does it work - If I could put a couple of pictures here, there would be no need to explain. For two months, I hand watered my plants every morning. A couple weeks ago, I put in a dripper system. My plants LITERALLY DOUBLED IN SIZE! Not only that, seeds I planted long before suddenly ALL sprouted. You just don’t realize how wasteful other watering systems are until you change. In a dripper system, 100% of the water ends up going to the roots since the delivery system applies the water in small amounts directly to where the plants want it. This system is so efficient that even professional farms are trading in their sprinkler systems for these new drippers.
How to install - If you have ever owned an Erector set, you will be immediately drawn to the accessory kits. There are all sorts of connectors and tubes that you can string together in all sorts of ways. You can install long tubes with built in drips, tubes that are soakers, a variety of elbows and 4-way connectors that you can use to join small tube sections, and even tiny micro-sprinklers and misters you can put on the end. As long as you stay within your budget (complete kits start at about $25) and make sure that the drips end up over the roots, you can’t go wrong.
Have fun and good luck on your gardening. You won’t believe the results until you actually install them for yourself.
