In-ground Container Gardening Irrigation Comparison
I found out quickly that one of the key things to keeping plants alive when it comes to in-ground planters is making sure the plants get enough water on a regular basis. Especially in a desert climate like Las Vegas. When the first summer came and temperatures reached over 100, it was easier to keep the plants alive because I could adjust the watering schedule. I know myself, and I would forget to water in the morning or the evening and end up with withered plants.
These are some observations from my experiences with using each type of container garden irrigation. Please take a look at this post if you are interested in how I ran irrigation stubs to my in-ground planter pot garden along my back wall.
Soaker Hose
This is what I started out using for my in-ground containers because I’m using ¼ inch soaker hose on the raised bed gardens I have. For the raised beds I wanted as much coverage as possible when watering so I left the hose above ground.
As seen in the picture, if the soaker hose isn’t covered by some type of mulch there is a lot of over-spray. When I was using this style of irrigation for the older in-ground pots I covered the soaker hose with shredded leaves for mulch.
Soaker Hose Irrigation Without Mulch
Drip Line Emitter Tubing
Drip line emitters have a drip put in every 12 inches for ¼ inch tubing and every 18 inches for ½ inch tubing. They are supposed to regulate the flow of water to usually 1 gallon per hour (gph).
Truthfully, I had this line emitter tubing from I’m not sure where. What it was supposed to do and what it did were two different things. Here are the reasons I really didn’t think this type of irrigation would be good for containers.
- There ends up being a lot of tubing coiled in the pot to get a couple of emitters in it.
- My hose must have been cheap. It had slices in it instead of a punched hole. This probably made a big difference when it came to water flow.
- The tubing I had definitely needed an in-line water pressure reducer. The pressure coming out of the emitters would have torn up seedlings.
Drip Line Emitter Tubing
Adjustable Drip Emitters
Adjustable drip emitters allow you to change the water flow usually from 1 gallon per hour (gph) to 6 gph. This is the solution I liked the most so far, but it is a little expensive compared to the other solutions. Each emitter is about 50 – 75 cents each and it requires a T connection to branch off.
- If a container isn’t being used the emitters could be turned off, and the water usage can be close to none. I’m sure there will be a little leaking if any.
- The coverage is good. The emitters being used now cover about a 4 inch diameter area when they are opened up. The entire container surface area is almost covered using 4-5 emitters.
- The flow from the emitters is slow enough not to damage seedlings.
Adjustable Drip Emitters
Fixed Drip Emitters
I’ve used these for herbs like Basil and Rosemary that were started 4-5 weeks under the grow lamp setup I built.
- Fixed drip emitters usually com in 1 gph and 2 gph flow rates.
- Multiple emitters might need to be used based on how long the watering cycle is and size of the plant.
I had some success with these last season. One thing to note is the plants only received half a day’s sun.
![Fixed Drip Emitter](http://diy-images.adventuresindiy.com/in-ground_container_gardening_irrigation/fixed_drip_emitter.jpg" "Fixed Drip Emitter")
Fixed Drip Emitter
In Ground Planter Pot Gardening – Installation and Irrigation
Last year I put a couple of large 4 gallon planter pots in the ground for container gardening. The plants in these fairly inexpensive, around $5, nursery pots grew really well. They allowed me to use my normal plant soil mix to more easily control the soil. The results were great! We were eating heirloom and cherry tomatoes, basil and eggplant all season from these containers.
This time around I used two different plastic nursery pots sizes, 4 gallons like before and one closer to 5-6 gallons. Both types were purchased and Home Depot from the gardening area. The 4 gallon one was around $5 and the 5-6 gallon one was closer to $6.50. They were tucked away near the tomato cages and not near the normal pot and plant container area.
Layout
After I removed the sandstone rock that was being used for mulch, I placed the pots along the back wall to try to judge a good spacing.
Rough In Ground Pot Layout
Bringing Irrigation to the Containers
To make the installation easier I used funny pipe. I really didn’t feel like gluing PVC pipe and having to deal with adapting the connections to go to the plastic nursery pots.
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100 Feet of 3/8 Inch Funny Pipe
I was able to use a PVC to irrigation funny pipe connector to tap into what used to be a sprinkler. The grass in that area is gone, but luckily I was too lazy to dig up the existing irrigation.
Irrigation Hook-up
In Las Vegas I’m sure the freeze line is pretty shallow. The irrigation funny pipe was run in a 6 inch deep trench in front of the planters since there was already a funny pipe irrigation line behind the planters that was on a different water schedule, one that runs a slow drip system for a long period of time.
Funny Pipe Irrigation
A barbed coupler was used to pierce the funny pipe for the ¼ inch line that will go to each of the containers.
1/4 inch Barbed Coupler
I made sure to over estimate the length so I wouldn’t run out of ¼ inch line.
1/4 inch Irrigation Lines To Pots
Putting Pots In the Ground
When digging the holes, I tried to make sure when it was filled in that the planter pot would stick about 3-4 inches from the ground. Also, a small trench in front of the pot allowed for the irrigation to easily reach the container.
Pots In The Ground
After this project I ended up taking about ½ a truck bed of dirt to the dump. Unfortunately I had no use for it in other places.
Finishing the Containers
After the pots were all in the ground a 4 foot wide weed barrier was put down. When installing the weed barrier, it was stretched the length of the area and holes were cut for the gardening containers.
An edging, that was purchased at the end of last season for 50% off, was installed to keep the rock mulch from creeping on to the sidewalk.
The usual raised bed / container gardening soil mix was used to fill the pots.
Filling Containers With Soil
The irrigation stubs were capped off so the rest of the garden could be watered while I was figuring out what to plant in these.
Irrigation Stub In Container
Lessons For Next Time
- I should have used string as a guide to keep a consistent center line from the back wall.
- Measure and mark the center line of where the pots will be finally placed on the string described above. Let’s just say my pots don’t have an exact placement
. - Test the irrigation by capping off all the ¼ inch tube with a plug and turning on the water. This is to test the connection point on the funny pipe to make sure you don’t bury a leak. Conserve that water!
- Mix in any time release fertilizer you want to use when filling the containers.
Las Vegas Gardening – Planting March 2011
I live in an older home in Las Vegas did some planting this last Friday. After last year’s crop I have more of a feel for the amount of sun the raised beds and in-ground planters have. This year I’ve:
- Put in more in-ground planters along the back wall. This area gets a lot of direct sun.
- In all the raised beds except for bed #3, I’m doing a mix of either vegetables and flowers or herbs and flowers.
Current Garden Layout
Current Garden Layout
In-ground Planters
- Moon and Star Watermelon
- Okra
- empty
- empty
- Solar Fire Tomato
- empty
- Hot Portugal Chili
- Sugar Snap Peas
- empty
- Zucchini
- Bell Pepper
- Masai Bush Beans
- Early Girl Tomato
- Super 100 Tomato [seed]
- Cherry Tomato
- Masai Bush Beans
- Salad Bush Cucumber
Raised Beds
Some of the raised beds don’t get full sun because they are near and partially under some large trees. That works out to a degree when summer hits here in Las Vegas. In the Spring and Fall though it’s hard to grow vegetables in certain beds.
This is what I’ve planted so far in the raised beds.
Raised Bed #1
This raised bed gets the least amount of light because of the trees and being close to the house, but the Sage is still alive from last year’s planting.
| Chinese House |
Cilantro | Cilantro | Lettuce Basil |
| Tokyo Spring Mix |
Dill [seed] |
Bells of Ireland |
Lettuce Basil |
| Pansy Moulin Rouge |
Sage | Sage | Thyme |
| Viola, Amber Kiss |
Cilantro | Cilantro | Thyme |
Raised Bed #2
There is more afternoon sun, about 6 hours, that comes through the trees. This happens more in certain areas of the raised bed than others.
| Sweet Basil |
Sweet Basil |
Viola, Amber Kiss |
Viola, Amber Kiss |
| Sweet Basil |
Tokyo Spring Mix Impatiens |
Tokyo Spring Mix Impatiens |
Spring Onion |
| Spring Onion |
Tokyo Spring Mix Impatiens |
Tokyo Spring Mix Impatiens |
Spring Onion |
| Thyme | Sage | Cilantro | Sage |
Raised Bed #3
This is the raised bed that gets the most light. Last year, I had two tomato plants that took over the entire bed. Pretty much I expect the same thing to happen this year so I planted other stuff that will be harvested before this happens or will be a vine.
| Spring Onion |
Large Leaf Basil |
Moon and Star Watermelon |
Okra |
| Spring Onion |
Organic Sweetie Tomato |
Organic Sweetie Tomato |
Snap Pea |
| Radish | Organic Sweetie Tomato |
Empty | Snap Pea |
| Radish | Japanese Cucumber |
Kabocha | Okra |
Raised Bed #4
Similar to Raised Bed #2, this one gets a mix of sun and shade. I still need to go through and possibly plant some vegetables or herbs that can be harvested before the Cherry Tomatoes get too big.
| Chinese House |
Empty | Dill | Dill |
| Empty | Cherry Tomato |
Empty | Chinese House |
| Empty | Empty | Cherry Tomato |
Empty |
| Chinese House [seed] |
Empty | Summer Long Basil [seed] |
Summer Long Basil |
Southwest Gardening November Update
This year we’ve been lucky with not getting a freeze until the week of Thanksgiving. The only plants alive from this years planting are the herbs. I did manage to take some pictures before the freeze.
The plants that paid off the most this year were the herbs.
Garlic Chives
Rosemary
Note: The sage is still alive, just forgot to take a picture.
The vegetable and flowers really loved the cooler weather of September and October.
Next year I think I’ll try moving the bell pepper to a sunnier location.
Small Bell Pepper
I planted this Big Horn pepper plant later, in May i believe, than some of the others. It ended up producing an alright amount of peppers.
Big Horn Pepper
When the heirloom tomatoes produced fruit it took a while for it to fully ripen. I think next year I’ll try some other variety.
Heirloom Tomato
Heirloom Tomato Flesh Pattern
The following two tomato plants really took over the 4 x 4 raised bed. It was a really good combination to plant the cosmos in the same bed. The bees would be attracted by the cosmos and then hit the tomato plants too.
Tomato and Cosmos
The Super 100 Tomato plant was the best producer out of all of them. This is on my list for next year for sure. The plant had some good growth considering it was in a 4 gallon container.
Super 100 Cherry Tomato
This Japanese Eggplant was a seedling I got from Star Nursery in August. During that time it managed to produce a couple of Eggplant.
Japanese Eggplant
Everything is dead from the Thanksgiving weather so now I just need to figure out how I’m going to shred all the plants to put into the compost barrel.
Southwest Gardening July 2010 Update
The temperature in Las Vegas and other parts of the South West have easily been 105 – 115 F these last couple of weeks. Here are some of the things I’ve observed.
The leaves on the tomatoes I have in planters that get full sun have been folding inward. These tomatoes are an heirloom variety that I grew from seed using the Burpee Heirloom Tomato Mix and a Super 100 cherry tomato.
Wilting Tomato Plant
Another Wilting Tomato Plant
This was even happening to the hot pepper that is in a pot. I think the problem is the plants weren’t getting enough water. According the Old Farmer’s Almanac tomatoes need at least 2 inches of water per week. I would think it is more here.
Here is what I’ve done to try to combat the plants from becoming dehydrated.
- Increased watering to twice daily. I water for 3-4 minutes each time on an irrigation system. There are 1/4” soaker hoses in the tomato planters.
- Built structures to partially shade the plants from the afternoon sun.
I built the shade structures from some 2x4s for the legs, scrap lumber for the top portions and some old solar screen material left over from another project.
Shade structure dimensions:
- Width: 2 ft
- Height: 6 ft
- Length: 8.5 ft
Shading Structure
The solar screen material was rolled over the sides and stapled on the inside.
Bottom View Of Shading Structure
I built only one shaded area to see the difference between added water and an area with additional shading. I’m writing this about 2 weeks after taking the pictures and I’ve seen some improvement on the plants that get both partial shade and the extra watering over the plants that get additional water only.
- The leaves aren’t as closed up as they once were.
- The Super 100 cherry tomato plant is starting to produce fruit again.
As a side note the basil plant that gets partial sun is doing well. I make sure to pick the flowers as they start to grow to keep the plant from going to seed.
Basil Plant Getting Partial Sun
First Summer Take Aways
- Next year I will start watering twice a day in June. Since I started to water more the heirloom tomatoes have started to really produce fruit. Hopefully I’ll get at least two more months out of them.
- Continue to plant basil in two areas, a cluster in the container that gets full sun for an earlier harvest and one in the bed that gets half day sun for summer use.
- I have some bell pepper plants that get half days sun. Those will be moved into some of the planters that get full day’s sun.
- I will try planting center clusters of 4 tomato plants in the 4 raised beds to see how they do there. (Each bed gets a varying degree of morning and afternoon sun)
- Continue to fertilize the tomatoes twice, once in May and when they are producing fruit. I use a time release fertilizer that contains calcium to help the growth of leaf tips and blossom ends. It also helps prevent blossom-end rot.