Drip irrigation, also called localized irrigation or drop-by-drop irrigation, is for professional use in agricultural areas of small or large sizes. The main purpose of drop-by-drop irrigation is to maintain the substrate that surrounds the plant or the type of crop there is, and thus prevent it from suffering due to water scarcity.
Its mechanism is mainly based on a set of pipes, which may or may not be underground, which channel water that flows into each plant to be watered. Watering with this type of system will allow the crop in question a richer growth thanks to the slowness of this type of localized irrigation.
Although the installation of drip irrigation can be a bit complex and medium-high price later it will give us a great saving of water, which is a good investment.
But now let’s get to know step by step the process of installing localized irrigation:
Step 1: to carry out the process we have to have a programmer, tubes to distribute the water and the dripper through which the plants will be watered.
The first thing we need to do is attach the programmer who will take care of regulating the water. The faucet will always stay open, so be sure that the nion is securely fastened and that no water will escape.
Step 2: Second, we must attach one end of the distributor tube to the programmer and place a pressure reducer and a hose coupling part. We will also need to know how long the hose we will need to perform the localized irrigation. Once we have calculated it we cut the finer pipes for the conduction of water from the main tube to each dropper.
Step 3: Next, we will need to insert the connections of the various water forks inside the general tube.
Step 4: once all the connections made now you have to insert the different droppers under earth, or not according to personal criteria, and locate them in such a way that the water reaches the root of the plant and do not lose water along the way. A good option will be to place a hose clamp to seal the end of the pipe and not have any water leakage.
Step 5: to finish the process we must program the irrigation with the corresponding data, that is, the exact time at which the irrigation has to be done and the duration that it must have.
This drip irrigation system stands out positively for several reasons:
- Being an automated system gives us more freedom and does not need labor.
- The amount of water from the irrigation is controlled as it only fires when we have programmed it.
- It easily adapts to areas with uneven or rocky terrain.
- Being a direct irrigation to the root of the plant or crop we lose less or no water and also decreases its evaporation, compared to other irrigation systems.
- It also helps us to further control the addition of nutrients that go with water.