Hand Watering vs. Drip vs. Buried Irrigation: Which Watering System Is Best?

The best watering system for your plants depends on how many you grow and how much time you have: hand watering is cheap and simple for a few containers, drip irrigation saves water and suits groups of plants, and buried automatic systems make sense for big plots. Whatever you pick, watering is a core piece of the cannabis growing puzzle. The trick is matching the method to your setup and your lifestyle.

Below we break down the main types of watering systems so you can pick the one that fits your grow and your day-to-day.

Hand watering: the simplest option

This is the most common way to water, mostly because it's dead simple: all you need is a hose, a couple of fittings and, sometimes, a spray nozzle. And let's be honest, who hasn't watered with the hose in one hand and a thumb jammed over the end? It's usually the go-to for planters, containers and small to medium plots.

The big upsides of hand watering are how easy it is to set up and how little it costs. The downside is control: since it's 100% manual and hard to measure, it's really easy to overwater some spots and underwater others.

How to hand-water a cannabis plant: the gear you need

• Hose: usually PVC, and there are different types depending on the length you need and the area you're watering. The most common on the market are kink-resistant hoses, coiled hoses and expandable pressure hoses.
• Fittings: these connect the hose to the faucet and to the nozzle. There are two main options: hose clamps and, far more common, quick-click connectors.

Drip irrigation: water straight to the roots

Drip irrigation, an automated method also known as localized irrigation, delivers water exactly where the plant needs it: at the roots. It's a highly recommended system for groups of plants because it's easy to put together and saves a lot of water. So how does drip irrigation work?

What to keep in mind when installing a drip line:

• Drip systems run at low pressure, so a pressure reducer is a must or the setup can blow apart.
• Flow rates at each outlet are tiny, which means any particle can clog an emitter. That's why a filter is highly recommended.
• It depends on your plants and what they need: pick the type of emitter that matches their water demands.

Types of drip emitters

• Basic emitters: usually fixed-flow, sometimes used for plants with very standard water needs. We recommend them for runs no longer than 25 m (about 80 ft).
• Pressure-compensating emitters: we recommend these for large setups or sloped ground, since they make sure every emitter puts out the same flow.
• Adjustable emitters: they adapt to anything, and a lot of growers swear by them because they're ideal when your plants have different water needs.
• Micro-sprinklers: small spray heads that fit onto drip tubing; great for watering lots of plants, or small lawns and tricky spots where a buried system won't fit.

Buried (in-ground) irrigation for large plots

This one is built for big plots of land. Its main advantages are:

• It's discreet: there's no gear visible over the area you're watering.
• If you set it up right, you'll save a lot of water compared with hand watering.
• If you automate it, you don't have to keep track of watering, so you get more free time for everything else.
• Keep in mind that buried systems are split into parts, and each one has its own job.

Automatic in-ground irrigation: the key parts

Water supply:

For a homemade system like this, the first thing to figure out is where the water will come from. That depends on your garden and its different zones. The usual sources are the main water line, a cistern, a well or a borehole.

Valve box:

Depending on your flow rate and the pressure at the supply, you can add different watering zones. But what is a valve box? It's where the main supply gets split into separate zones. Before you split anything, plan it out properly: you need to know where the rotors or sprinklers go, how many there are, and the flow and pressure you're working with.

Pipes:

pipe diameter depends on the capacity of your water supply. In private gardens, the most common sizes are 25 and 32 mm (roughly 3/4 in and 1 in).

Fittings:

elbows, tees and couplings are always needed to route the pipe across the lawn. Our advice: use as few elbows as you possibly can, because each one causes a fair amount of pressure loss and can seriously cut the flow of the whole system.

Rotors and spray heads:

these are the “characters” in charge of spreading water evenly across the garden. They're different beasts: spray heads are perfect for small areas of around 4-5 m (13-16 ft) in diameter, and their big advantage is that they're cheap and easy to adjust. Rotors, on the other hand, throw water much farther, so they're ideal for large areas. Don't mix rotors and spray heads on the same zone, since their flow rates are very different: you'd end up with a bone-dry rotor area or a soggy spray-head area.

Automation:

if you want to stop worrying about turning the faucet on and off, you can automate the buried system to do it for you. Most controllers need an outlet, though there are battery-powered systems too. So how do you set up automatic watering? Here's what you'd need:

• Valves: electronic shut-off valves, usually installed in the valve boxes. The most popular models are wired to a controller.
• Controller: this runs the valves; with it you can schedule watering however you like.
• Wiring: the cables that carry the signal from the controller to the valves. Heads up: it's usually not recommended for runs over 20-30 m (65-100 ft), because the signal is low-voltage and can weaken.

Now that you know the watering systems out there, all that's left is picking the one that best fits your grow, your lifestyle and your comfort level.

 

 

 

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