Advanced Drip Irrigation - Field Installations

Water Management in the Landscape

What you'll learn
At the end of this course you'll have a greater understanding of how to lay out and install in-line drip irrigation systems.
You will learn how to use inline drip irrigation for ornamental shrub beds
You will learn how to use inline drip irrigation for vegetable gardens
You will learn how to use inline drip irrigation for fruit trees
You will learn how to calculate how much water your shrubs, garden or fruit trees actually require to stay healthy and thrive
Requirements
You should have a basic understanding of drip irrigation materials and components prior to taking this course. There are no other tools or materials required. There will be extensive resources available throughout the class for you to download, including the irrigation plan used for this property.
Description
This class is for those of you who want to learn, not just installation techniques, but how to actually calculate the amount of water your landscape requires for better water management.  This is not a beginners course on drip irrigation.  If you're decent with math and have a desire to be a better water manager then this course should be a good fit for you. This was filmed both out of doors at a private residence in Martinez, California - near the San Francisco Bay and in my studio in Auburn, California.  It documents the installation of in-line drip irrigation under real-world situations; all of the participants work in the landscape and irrigation industry.  Explanations and  installation tips are offered and discussed throughout this course, each "actor" having the opportunity to describe what they are doing and why.  We'll be discussing drip irrigation for established plantings, vegetable beds, fruit trees, ornamental beds and native plants on a hillside.   Due to the location there will be times when leaf blowers, a jack hammer and passenger jets flying overhead will be heard.  I have done my best to mitigate these distractions and I don't feel they take anything away from the course, but I want you to be aware of them from the start.   Lecture 20 is a Bonus Lecture added in August 2021 - it is a tour of my own vegetable garden showing how I laid out and installed drip irrigation for raised beds.  A scaled diagram of hte garden and drip system is available for download in the Resources area for this Lecture.The "in studio" lectures is where I'll be covering water management issues such as using reference evapotranspiration rates to help determine your irrigation run times.  We'll look at the formula for how to calculate the gallons of water your landscape needs.  The values I will be using are for Placer County, California, USA.  The formulas will work wherever you may be living, but you'll have to do some research on your own to find the critical evapotranspiration rate values for your location.  Universities, agricultural stations, farm advisers and local weather stations are all resources you can reach out to to get this information. There will be some math included - techniques and formulas for determining how much water your various plants will require to be healthy without over-watering and wasting this resource.  Exercises and resources will be available for download and the irrigation plan for this project will also be available for you to download and refer to for your own projects.The purpose of this course is to offer real-world solutions and insights into how drip irrigation can and should be designed and installed - whether you're a homeowner or a landscape contractor/designer.  If you're really interested in learning how to design and manage an effective drip irrigation system for your home or for a client, then I believe this course will be perfect for you.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Sizing Valves for Drip Irrigation

Lecture 3 How to Determine Your GPM Flow Rate

Lecture 4 Installing a Flexible Connection

Section 2: Water Management

Lecture 5 Understanding Water Management

Lecture 6 Determining Precipitation Rates in Drip Systems

Lecture 7 How Much Water Do Your Plants Really Need? Part One

Lecture 8 How Much Water Do Your Plants Really Need? Part Two

Lecture 9 How Much Water Do Your Plants Really Need Part Three

Lecture 10 Determining Irrigation for Fruit Trees

Lecture 11 Using ETo to Calculate Irrigation Runtimes for New Plantings

Lecture 12 Using ETo to Calculate Irrigation Runtimes for Low Water-Use Plantings

Lecture 13 How To Calculate Gallons of Water Required in the Landscape

Section 3: Field Installation Tips, Techniques and Demonstrations

Lecture 14 Installing Drip Line in Established Planting Beds

Lecture 15 Drip Irrigation in Vegetable Beds

Lecture 16 Drip Irrigation for Native Plantings

Lecture 17 Section Wrap-Up

Section 4: Weather Based Irrigation Controllers (Smart Controllers)

Lecture 18 Weather Based Irrigation Controllers - An Overview

Section 5: Wrap Up and Thank You!

Lecture 19 Course Wrap-Up and Thank You

Lecture 20 Drip Irrigation in the Vegetable Garden

This course is for those already familiar with drip irrigation. We'll be working with in-line systems and demonstrating how to lay out and install irrigation in an actual yard. If you are interested in seeing and learning about the real-world challenges of designing and installing in-line drip systems, then this course is for you!