mjbarnard wrote:
I have installed a Gardena micro-drip irrigation system as well as
below ground drip irrigation line for lawn, borders and pots.

My question relates to watering rates for pots. The system for pots
has drip heads which deliver 4 litres per hour, although I tested a
couple and they seem to go up to 6 litres per hour.


I understand that the answer varies according to plant species, site,
container etc, but I wonder if anyone has any broad recommendations
for this system?

The nursery I used to work for http://www.blakeneyhouse.co.uk/ we used 4lph
drippers and as a rough guide had one dripper per 10 litres of pot. On hot
days we'd run the system for 15 mins in the morning and 15 mins in the
afternoon.

The trouble with leakage gets much worse if the compost totally dries out.
It's difficult to re-wet the compost and expand it to fit the pot again.
Little and often seems way better than one big hit a day.

I proposed a timer to water at dawn and dusk to cut down on evap but it was
never done... The worst wastage was from unused drippers. No on / off tap
on individual drippers.

Les




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Les Hemmings a.a #2251 SA