Everything You Need To Know About Drip Manifolds

These DIG 4 outlet manifolds are an excellent way to distribute water throughout your garden or flowerbed. Plus, they’re a water-saving alternative to using sprinklers. I’m Dwayne Smith a Sprinkler Warehouse Product Specialist. Let’s talk about drip manifolds.

What Are Drip Manifolds?

Drip manifolds like these DIG 4 outlet bubblers turn a half-inch shrub stick or riser into a mini drip system. Drip irrigation uses considerably less water than conventional sprinkler systems. By delivering water directly to the root zones of plants, drip helps eliminate problems with insects, weeds, and plant diseases, and prevents wasting water due to runoff and evaporation. We have 4 different manifolds here.

These Manifolds Are Pressure Compensating

Each has four outlets. They are color-coordinated by flow rate. Blue – 2 gallons per hour per outlet. Black – 6 gallons per hour per outlet. Red – 12 gallons per hour per outlet. Green – 20 gallons per hour per outlet. Quarter-inch micro tubing connects to each of these barbs. The microtubing carries water from the outlets to the root zone of your plants. Depending on the flow rate of your emitters and the size of your plants one outlet may water one plant or possibly several. For trees or large shrubs, you may need to use several outlets.

Keep Micro Tubing Length Less Than 8 Feet

When laying out your system you’ll want to keep your lengths of micro tubing short, six to eight feet at most. For smaller plants, you’ll probably want to go with something like this black 6 gallons per hour and for larger plants, this red 12 gallons per hour is a better choice. To retrofit a sprinkler to a manifold. Unscrew the sprinkler from the riser. Next, it’s a good idea to flush the line for just a few seconds. Shut off the water. Screw the manifold onto the riser. Wiggle on some poly tubing like so.

Run Micro Tubing To Each Plant To Target The Root Zone

In the end, you’ll want to put a stake to keep the microtubing pointed at its intended target. We recommend putting one of these little diffuser bug caps on the end of your tubing to keep little pests and dirt out of the tubing. It also helps prevent erosion at your plant roots. Bug caps do not restrict flow like a regular emitter. If you have enough flow to water two plants from one outlet, you can insert a barbed tee and add additional tubing to reach both plants. Another trick is to use a barbed coupler and add emitter tubing and loop that around a plant.

Remember, Sprinkler Warehouse has everything for your irrigation needs so your trees, lawn, flower beds, and gardens are lush and beautiful. If you have any questions about our products you can chat with one of our superb customer service agents on SprinklerWarehouse.com. They really know their stuff and they’ll get you squared away.

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