Drip Irrigation Poly Tubing and Fittings: Everything to Know for your Drip Irrigation Project

Adam explains everything you need to know about Poly Tubing and Poly Fittings.

*Explore our selection of Drip Irrigation Kits:* https://www.dripdepot.com/kits

Beginner’s Guide for How to Design a Drip Irrigation System: https://youtu.be/FJF49lb23b8

– Poly tubing: https://www.dripdepot.com/irrigation-supplies-tubing-poly
– Tubing Fittings: https://www.dripdepot.com/irrigation-supplies-fittings-tubing
– Tubing Hole Punches & Cutters: https://www.dripdepot.com/irrigation-supplies-punches-cutters
– Head Assembly: https://www.dripdepot.com/irrigation-kits-head-assembly

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 – Intro
0:05 – Choosing the Right Poly Tubing
1:08 – Sizing Your Mainline Tubing
2:50 – Preventing Movement with Tubing Stakes
3:36 – Best Stakes for Different Soil Types
4:29 – Connecting Tubing with Fittings
5:26 – The Best Type of Fittings for DIYers
6:12 – How to Repair Damaged Tubing
7:18 – Fixing Unwanted Holes with Goof Plugs
8:07 – Attaching Drippers to Poly Tubing
9:50 – What is a Drip Irrigation Head Assembly?
10:42 – Why You Need a Pressure Regulator

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all the choices out there with poly tubing and its fittings can be overwhelming let’s go over what you need to get started to use poly tubing in your drip irrigation system for drip irrigation we typically use black poly tubing although black poly tubing is the most common there’s also white tubing available for the average di wire white tubing is really only necessary for Aesthetics like for running some tubing up to hanging baskets or a misting system on your Pao or deck if you’re growing in a greenhouse or Nursery white poly tubing is great because it reflects sunlight keeping water cooler and reducing algae growth while also reflecting light to help plants grow making it ideal for controlled environments both white and black poly tubing are UV resistant meaning they can be used above ground and last for many years without degradation poly tubing is reasonably flexible and quite easy to work with but you’ll probably want to set it in the sun for about an hour before unrolling it this will help prevent the tubing from tangling and make it even easier to work with all you really need to work with and cut poly tubing is a pair of scissors now if you’re using sizes larger than 1/2 in such as 3/4 in or 1 in a pair of tubing Cutters like this can come in handy poly tubing is available in a wide variety of sizes most commonly we see anything from 1/8 in up to 1 in being used the smaller sizes the E8 in and the/ qu inch are what you often hear referred to as microt tubing or spaghetti tubing if you hear those terms it’s going to be one of those too spaghetti tubing is most often used in short lengths with an emitter installed at the end of that length to deliver water to one or more plants the larger sizes of tubing 1/2 in to 1 in are most often used as main lines to deliver water to the smaller sizes of poly tubing drip line and drip tape choosing your tubing diameter will primarily depend on the length of the mainline and the amount of water that flows through the emitters connected to it for a/ Quin Mainline you wouldn’t want it to be longer than 30 ft or have more than 30 gallons per hour going through it for/ in that’s 200 ft and 200 Gall per hour for 3/4 in that’s 400 80 ft and 480 Gall per hour and finally for 1 in that’s 960 ft and 960 Gall per hour when sizing a Mainline it’s good to size up a little bit this leaves you room for expansion and helps take care of unaccounted variables now those aren’t hard and fast rules but they’re based off experience and friction loss charts if you’d like to learn a little bit more about the math and other factors that go into sizing a main line you can check out the video right there in the top right it’s a step-by-step guide to sizing a Mainline if you’d like just follow the general rules in Mainline sizing the 3030 200200 rule keep in mind that that limitation is just for an individual length it is perfectly acceptable to have multiple lengths that add up to more for example if I have five 10t lengths of quter tubing that’s a total of 50 ft and that’s okay because none of them exceed 30 ft in length as you’re installing your poly tubing you’ll probably want Stakes to hold down the tubing every 2 to 4 feet as you go so the tubing stays in place in addition to helping you during installation without Stakes the tubing can experience significant movement when the system is turned on this can cause the tubing to move away from the plants it is intended to irrigate and can cause the tubing to pull other parts of the system out of their carefully arranged locations this movement can also cause clogged emitters that’s why we think tubing Stakes are well worth it there are J wire Stakes that are good for standard lomy soil but also heavy duty uwire Stakes U Stakes have extra holding power because they have two ends that can both Drive deeply into the soil there are also Stakes with a crimp in the middle to add extra hold for tough soil conditions just make sure that if you choose wire Stakes they are galvanized non-galvanized Stakes will Rust and corrode here’s an example of two staks installed at the same time one of them being galvanized and the other non-galvanized if a wire stake doesn’t push down in rocky soil it might bend to fix this you can clip the ends off with wire cutters to make it shorter and easier to install there are also plastic Stakes that not only blend into the land Cape better but also have extra holding power in light or Sandy soils we’ve also found these plastic Stakes are easier to install in relatively rocky soil if you have a hammer or Mallet handy for 1/4in tubing we highly recommend using staks size specifically for 1/4in tubing since the large tubing Stakes will leave too much wiggle room tubing clamps for both 1/2 in and one4 inch can also be handy for securing tubing to your raised beds or up a post for hanging baskets so what happen happens when you need to connect multiple pieces of poly tubing together or you need to move them in multiple directions or turn 90° that’s where fittings come in fittings are what you use with your tubing to accomplish your layout the most common fittings that you’re going use in drip irrigation are the coupling to join two pieces together a hose adapter to get it connected to a water source like a garden hose or a hose bib an elbow to turn Corners a te to split in multiple directions an incap so you can close everything off so water just doesn’t run out the end an inline valve that works like an onoff switch for your irrigation system then we got some more rare fittings that don’t see as often but still find their place like a four-way cross if you need to split in four different directions at once and adapters that allow you to connect different sizes of tubing together or even connect tubing to a whole different type of pipe like PVC pipe fittings come in different connection types we’ve got Barbed insert fittings drip lock fittings compression fittings the contractor’s choice and lock style fittings your choice of fitting type depends on cost the time it takes to install them ease of use and whether you want to be able to reuse them or not if you’re new to using fittings we generally recommend the lock style fittings they’re reusable and significantly easier to use than some of the others particularly compression fittings which really takes some experience to get the most out of the video card on the top right is an in-depth look at each of the different fitting types so you can choose one that’s best for your project and your needs for Di wires we typically recommend the lock style fittings the reason is because they’re reusable but mostly because they’re ease of use to use a lock style fitting all you have to do is push the tubing to the Barb walk it back and forth until it covers the Barb a quick tip if you’re having any trouble whatsoever is to dip the tubing into some hot water this will soften it up enough to make it very easy to walk on over the Barb fitting compatibility corresponds directly to tubing diameter thus 1/4in tubing is compatible with 1/4 in fittings and so on now the one exception to this is 1/2 in tubing because 1/2 in tubing isn’t standardized like the others if you’re buying your tubing and your fittings from us you’ll always be compatible unless you’re using compression fittings because they’re very hyp specific to what they’re compatible with a 1/2 in lock style fitting is always going to be compatible with our halfin tubing and the halfin tubing we use is one of the more common halfin sizes if you’re adding to or repairing an existing system that uses 1/2 in tubing check out the video there in the top bright it’s an in-depth guide that goes over half-in tubing compatibility and the various fittings over the years and through many irrigation Cycles you’re eventually going to have some damaged tubing fortunately it’s easy to repair this is how to repair damaged poly tubing all you have to do is cut the damage portion out and then splice them back together with a coupling so what if the damage is really extensive like this here where some raccoons got to it the answer is still easy all you will need is two couplings and a length to SP splice in so first we’re going to want to cut away the damage section so we have some nice even clean ends to work with next you’ll want to attach a coupling to each open end of the tubing now I’m going to connect the two pieces together and splice in this little bit of replacement tubing if you punch a hole in your halfin or larger tubing that you don’t need all you have to do is fill it up with a goof plug a quick Pro tip on using goof plugs cuz you are going to be using them is to use the larger size and use a pair of needle-nose pliers to help you get the leverage to push them right in so how do you attach your drippers to your poly tubing if your system is small for example just a couple potted plants on your deck and you’re only going to be using Corin tubing all you have to do is run the tubing over to your plant push the dripper into the end of the tubing and then stake it in place with a stabilizer stake check out the video in the top right if you want to see a step-by-step guide to installing a small drip irrigation system with only quinch poly tubing now if you’re using 1/2 in or larger poly tuing I’m going to show you the two most common ways to accomplish this but if you’d like to learn others check out our video there in the top right or in the description below it covers five different methods to connect and use drippers to your poly tubing including some unique situations both of these methods start off the same you simply punch a hole in your tubing using a 1/4 inch punch from there you could simply insert a dripper into that hole if your poly tubing run is close enough to to your plants and then you’re done your dripper is ready to deliver water directly to the roots of your plants if your plant has a bit of distance away from your poly tubing you can instead use a 1/4 in coupling then attach some 1/4 in micro or spaghetti tubing to that coupling and push it in the hole you just punch run it over to your plant cut it and push a dripper into the end of your microt tubing if you’re just doing a couple drippers to water a couple plants this will be a breeze with just your hands a simple punch and some scissors but if you’ve got a lot of them to do or a big landscape that you’re trying to irrigate there are some tools and punches and combination tool punches that will make the job much easier there’s too many to cover in this video but if you’d like to learn all about them check out the video there in the top right or the description below you’ll see a full step-by-step guide to all of our punches and Cutters and tools now you got your tubing laid out and your drippers connected so how do you get water to get into your tubing and then to your drippers and then to your plants that’s where the head assembly comes in the head assembly are the parts that connect your irrigation system to your water source which is typically a hose bib a head assembly consists of a few simple Parts like a timer which is completely optional only need it if you want to automate your system the rest of the head assembly the part you absolutely do need in almost all cases is a backflow preventer to protect your poble water source from any contaminants in the irrigation system a filter to filter out debris that might be in the Water Source it’s a very fine mesh filter that get particles that are difficult to even see with your eye and that’s important for the small orifices that we see in drip emitters and finally a pressure regulator to lower that house pressure from anywhere from 40 to 60 PSI down to 15 to 25 psi depending on the drippers that you’re using the last part of the head assembly is just the adapter that connects to the outlet of your pressure regulator and then to tubing on the other end just another fitting like we’ve already talked about now one of the great things about these head assemblies is everything just screws together like here’s the adapter that connects your tubing oh to do screw it on it’s that simple and forget the Teflon tape when you use teflon tape with hose threaded Parts it can actually cause some of the problems that you’re hoping to prevent so don’t use that and this is all you need to get your hose bib connected to your irrigation system if you come browse our website you’re going to see that we have a lot of kits the kits that we have always contain a complete systems that means it’s going to come with fittings including the ones that you have to have like the adapter to connect to the Water Source the in caps to close off your Mainline tubing run and the complete head assembly this means you don’t even have to think about it you can get a complete system with a single press of a button all the parts you saw today are included in the description below including our easy to use and Order kits if you’d like to learn how to design your own drip irrigation system check out the video right there it’s a step-by-step guide to easily design your own drip system if you’d like to learn more about drip irrigation in general check out our getting started with drip irrigation playlist right here