Picked the wrong irrigation setup for my garden and paid for it all summer

Back in April I had to choose between a drip system and those cheap oscillating sprinklers for my raised beds. I went with the sprinklers because they were $30 total versus $120 for the drip kit. By July half my tomato plants had fungus from water hitting the leaves every day, and I was watering twice as long because the wind kept blowing the spray around. Swapped to drip tape in August and the difference was night and day. Anyone else make a similar watering mistake and switch mid-season?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_oliver20d ago

Last year I did almost the exact same thing with my pepper plants. I went for those cheap oscillating sprinklers too because I was trying to save money, and by July half the leaves had yellow spots from the water sitting on them. I switched to soaker hoses in August and it was a game changer, the peppers perked right up and I stopped seeing fungus completely. The initial cost hurt but I probably saved that money back in water bills by the end of the season. Honestly I still cringe when I think about all that wasted time standing out there moving the sprinkler around.

alicer5320d ago

Oh man, "all that wasted time moving the sprinkler around" hit me right in the gut because I did literally the exact same thing with my tomatoes last year! I had that cheap oscillating sprinkler and I'd stand there every evening shifting it a few feet because the water pressure was so bad it barely reached half the bed. By August my tomato leaves looked terrible too, all spotted and sad looking. I finally broke down and bought a soaker hose setup and I swear my plants looked better within a week. The water bill went down noticeably too because I wasn't spraying half the driveway anymore. I still kick myself for not just doing it right from the start instead of trying to be cheap.

quinnm7719d ago

My uncle tried those sprinklers on his zucchini and ended up flood irrigating his neighbor's driveway instead.