As the days get warmer and the grass is getting greener, the time for watering trees, flowers, and other plants is fast approaching. Anyone who has had plants in their yard, knows that in order for them to grow correctly and especially to stay alive, the plants need to be watered-many of them on a daily basis. It can be a pain to have to drag a hose around to each plant that is spread out around the yard and knowing how much water each plant will need. If you don’t give the plant enough water, it will die. If you give the plant too much water, it can be washed out and it will not take root.
There was a time that using the hose to water your plants was the only option available and since some plants needed a lot of water, people would just leave their hoses running to give them the water they needed, but then they would get distracted and leave the hose running longer than it should. This wastes water and can be harmful to the plants when they are getting more water than they need. Having only a hose available created two main problems: inconvenience to the person who had to water the plants and water being wasted when they hose was left on for too long; something had to be done.
This is where the drip irrigation system came in handy. A drip system is a versatile set up that can be used in different applications. It can be hooked up directly to a hose bib or be attached to a yard’s sprinkler system. Both utilize some sort of timer, which means that your plants can get the water they need for the right amount of time that they need it. One of the many parts that makes watering plants easier is the bubbler, designed for use with drip systems while having the ability to be adjusted for different types of plants.
Bubblers can come off of drip tube directly to the base of the plant that needs to be watered or can be placed on what is called a drip stake, raising the bubbler above the plants creating an effect like light rainfall. Many improvements have been made to bubblers, one of which that combines the bubbler and the stake into one unit. It just needs to be hooked up to the main drip line using ¼” pipe. The stake goes into the ground, holding it in specific area while watering the area that is around it. Other bubblers are designed so that the flow of the water can be increased or decreased, according to the needs of the different plants they are watering. The technologies combined with timers and sprinkler systems solved the two problems of the hose. Not only do the plants get the amount of water they need, the automation of the system gives the user the freedom to work on other tasks while the plants are getting watered. To learn more about bubblers and drip irrigation, visit plumbersstock.