I wouldn’t have any concerns with the 360° micro spray stake until you get down to really small diameter pots or one where the stake cannot be sunk up to its shoulder. You can screw the adjuster in and decrease the rate of flow for the initial adjustment, it will simply take longer to water since there is less water being meted out.
If the spitters function like my 90° and 180° micro spray stakes then they are useful for situations like gardening beds, larger diameter as well as multi stem plants. With my garden I would use 90° in a corner, 180° along the edge of a large bed. If I had a plant in a pot I could put two 180° on opposite sides of the stem and throw the water outwards towards the rim.
If I had a large chrysanthemum (many stems) in a large pot I could place four of the 90° stakes around the plant, throwing the water outwards.
Yes I’m in communication with them now. They did send me some recommendations. They recommended I use 1/2 inch tubing for the mainline and use the downspray spitters for my containers. I’m going to have to ask them for a more specific parts list though because I’m not sure yet how to modify any of the kits myself since at this point I don’t know yet what all the parts do and which I should keep or omit from the kit.
I have a few different ones but haven’t tried all of them. I have the blue 360 degree one but its not tall enough to get complete coverage on a big container. If you have a lot of containers like me, you also have to consider flowrate as I can’t get over 200 GPH with my 1/2 inch line. The 360 degree ones put out too much water for me. What has worked best for me is just trying to angle the best spread when staking them into the pot.
There are about a dozen nearly-identical version on Amazon, but these are slightly adjustable and do a fairly flat 360 degree spray patter. I’ve tried several other versions but these can handle a 30 gallon grow bag with only 1-2 emitters.
I had a chance to consult with the irrigation guy who works for my landscaper today and he told me he thought bubblers would be best for my containers. He said maybe more than one would be needed per container, but he seemed to feel they did the best job. I couldn’t quite follow what he was saying but he seemed to think that with sprayers a lot of the water gets lost or can be blown away by the wind. He said they are also effective at wetting the entire surface and getting water to the whoel root system but apparently they have a gentler flow, like a small fountain? Have you also tried bubblers and if so what are your thoughts on them? Do you still consider spot sprayers superior? I’m inclined to just go with spot spitters now that I know they are what most nurseries use for their container trees, but I haven’t yet been able to compare the two, so don’t really have any way to know.
Fan spray type. My 30 gal bags are 18 inches across and I try to have the soil an inch or 3 under the bag edge and the sprinker head below that so it contains the spray. You can adjust the spray distance some, but only so much.
My pressure isn’t very high so I run parallel as much as possible and for bubblers I’d probably need 3-4 emitters per bag and have quarter inch hose running so much walking would be impossible.
I did switch to 2 hose inputs last year so maybe I’d have the pressure to run bubblers or buttons at one series per bag.
It has been working great for me for a year in my 15g+ pots. You need more components to get them installed, depending on how you want to set it up, though.
yes that looks like exactly the one! I ran it past drip depot though, asking them if they really thought the bubbler was preferable to the spot spitter for particular situation and they recommended I stick with the spot spitter because it can provide more precise control of waterflow - it’s a lot easier to overwater with the bubblers, they said. I have a whole range of containers I need to water from 2-25 gallons, so one thing I like about the spot spitter is how I can choose the exact right one for each container size based on the color coding. I also must admit I’m not entirely convinced those mini bubblers can wet the entire surface of a container as effectively as a spot spitter, seeing they emit water in an umbrella shape, and they are actually advertised as being specifically good for sending water to the root ball. I also like the fact spot spitters are what commercial nurseries use for their container trees, because I figure they are going to know what works best and use it. So I just ordered spot spitters in every color along with a bunch of other stuff. Can’t wait to set this system up and see it in action!
Nice! Spot spitters are great for sure! Did you get 1/8 inch line? I remember not ordering it and being disappointed that I couldn’t get started that day
haha yes I can imagine how disappointing that would be! I was thinking the same thing myself as I put items in my cart: what if I forget something essential and can’t make use of what I ordered without it? I did get the 1/8” line and also the primerus hole punch. I tried to think of everything I might need and ordered it just in case, hoping to avoid that situation.
downspray is best, drippers can cause channeling, especially in loose airy soil. use a pressure regulator to get consistent flows. run 1/4 line off your main 1/2 line so you can relocate the spray head every once in a while. get a timer that has multiple start times, especially if these will get summer sun. heat/sun often cause hydrophobic soil, which kills quickly. with two start times, you split your time into a quick rinse ( say 1 or 2 minutes) then wait 5 minutes, then run the rest of the water after the soil has absorbed the first run. that lets the soil get moist and ready to accept the rest of the irrigation. otherwise you can run too much too fast and it flows to side of container and runs down and out. no bueno. also helps to sit your plants 1 or 2 inches low in the container and build up a ring of soil around the edge to help keep water from running out and down.
Do you think that five minutes between the two irrigation events is enough time? I’ve never studied how much time potting soils that have fully dried out require. I’ve gone with what I felt was the long end of the range and allowed a full 30 minutes between the two. I have been curious what is actually necessary to remove that hydrophobic quality.
well hopefully if you’re on a timer system we’re only talking about some hydrophobia right at the surface. if the whole container went hydrophobic you need a wetting agent or a full soak in a larger container. so if we’re only dealing with the top inch or so, then i would think 5 mins should be enough time. seems to work for me, but im in temperate climate. you could certainly do 10 or 15 if you wanted. or 30. every so often i use a wetting agent product on containers during summer just to avoid dry spots in the pot, and it also has humic acids so plants seem to like it.
I really need to get a timer system set up for my parents’ house. They are accidentally killing more and more plants as a result of their aging, distraction and forgetfulness. When I’m there and I’m concerned that they haven’t run the manual system recently I’ll do the double watering event thing.
I’m using 5-1-1, well actually I altered the proportions to 5-2-1.5, but I’ve never had the soil go hydrophobic on my since using this mix. Nevertheless, I do like your idea of doing a quick rinse and then pausing, and watering again, as that can only lead to better water absorption so far as I can see.
I just got a Rainbird ESP-ME3 controller for my drip system. It looks like it can do multiple start times, but I haven’t quite figured it out yet. Apparently if you want to do multiple start times for just one line, you have to make a special program just for that line, otherwise it will apply the multiple start times to every line indiscriminately.
The one thing you wrote I’m not sure I understand is: “also helps to sit your plants 1 or 2 inches low in the container and build up a ring of soil around the edge to help keep water from running out and down.” Could you express this again in other words or clarify? I’m having trouble visualizing what you are proposing. Thanks.
Lucas, in the summer when you’re watering your containers 3 minutes every hour, what are the temps there that require such irrigation? Are you all of your trees large mature trees whose roots fill the entire container?
Most of my trees are young and the container sizes they are in are larger than they are, so the roots do not fully fill the containers. I am not quite sure why but I have found that even after applying not so great a volume of water, my container soils stays most for a long time, often more than a week, even with hot weather, though hot weather here is usually low to high 80’s maximum.
I’ve now got my whole container line set up with spot spitters watering every tree, and I have found that even just running the spitters for 2 minutes, the saucers I have underneath my plants are overflowing. I’m not entirely sure yet, but I get the impression I’m not going to need to run the spitters for more than a few minutes each week to get my trees the water they need. I guess if I remove all the trays, I’d need to water them more often, since all the water would be running off. I have trays under my trees simply because my mix is porous and I fertilize with osmocote, so without the trays I think there would be a lot of wasted water and fertilizer.
yep, just like crater says. think of trees in orchard, when they’re first planted alot of times they build a ring of soil around tree to keep water in root zone. thats what i was referring to here. i build up some soil around the edge of pot so the water doesnt run over to the edge and down the side of the container without soaking into the soil.
