Whether you are running a commercial operation or just a home vegetable garden, keeping your plants well watered is key to a successful harvest. In many climates, you cannot rely on the rain to keep your vegetables hydrated. Even in areas with frequent rain, the inconsistency of the rain can create unreliable growing patterns among your plants. To create a consistent and bountiful harvest, you need to control as many elements as possible. If you have standing orders for fruit or if you sell your vegetables yourself, it is of the utmost importance that everything happens on a predictable schedule.

Irrigation Systems

A custom irrigation system is the best way to regulate how much water your plants are receiving on a daily basis. This can be done manually by monitoring the amount of rain and watering your plants yourself. You can also set the system to feed water based on a timer. What is most important is that your plants are receiving an even sprinkling of water.

Perforated stainless steel tubing can help ensure that your veggies are receiving the water they need. The system you can build is actually fairly simple. All you need is a hose, some piping, and something that allows you to sprinkle water over the plants.

Dumping water from a bucket or another vessel is inadvisable because the massive flow of water can wash fertilizer away from the soil as well as best stainless steel garden hose washing away soil and exposing the roots to the elements. A gentle sprinkle works best to mimic the natural rain that soaks into the soil without disturbing the compost.

How to Build It

Building a system using perforated stainless steel tubing is quite easy. You need to buy piping long enough to run the length of your vegetable garden. You also need to build a frame so that you can suspend the tubing above the plants. A corrosion and rust-resistant metal such as stainless steel is perfect because it will not rust in the elements, nor will it leach harmful chemicals into your garden.

Once you build a frame to hold the perforated stainless steel tubing, affix it above your plants. If your garden is long enough, you might want to add more supports in the middle of the pipe. Keep in mind that water will increase the weight of the piping, and the longer it is, the more weight it will bear.

With a properly sized pipe, you can thread a garden hose directly onto the pipe. When you turn the water on, it will pass through the piping and sprinkle evenly over the different plants. If you have a very long pipe, you might need to connect a garden hose to each end so that you can maintain an even drip over each vegetable.