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Land F/X Drip Irrigation Design and Graphic Conventions
The Land F/X approach to drip irrigation graphics is to not show individual drip emitter locations for every plant, but to define areas that are to receive drip irrigation in a general manner, and clearly indicate the individual support equipment such as valves, drip lateral line, zone control, multi-outlet devices, flush valves, etc. The Land F/X Drip system will assume that the planting plan was designed using Land F/X, and that the planting plan has been Xref’ed into the Drip plan. This Xref will be scanned for individual plants in order to assign individual emitters to plants, and calculate gallonage.
Land F/X Basic Drip Component Approach
Drip Control Valves: The drip control valves consist of a remote control valve in conjunction with a filter (to filter out debris particles) and a pressure regulator (to control the lower pressure requirements). Typically, lateral line pipe of below grade hard pipe PVC (such as PVC Class 200) will run from the drip control valve to the various areas that are to receive drip systems. This allows for a permanent underground water supply that cannot easily be disrupted for the drip areas.
Zone Control: At each area to receive drip systems, a Zone Control transitions the PVC pipe to the drip tubing or dripline piping. This Zone Control is typically a “T” or “L” into a drip box that transitions to the above grade drip tubing. These Zone Controls should be spaced at reasonable enough intervals so that the drip area that it controls is small enough to easily replace if damaged. Depending on the designer, the Zone Controls might be 50 to 75 feet apart.
Drip Tubing: The above grade drip tubing supplies areas to receive drip emission systems with a variety of options: Drip Emitters, Drip Bubblers, or Drip Spray. These may consist of single or multi-outlet emitters, and may be attached to the drip tubing directly, or with distribution tubing.
Flush Valve: Each area controlled by a Zone Control should have a manual Flush Valve connected to the drip tubing, located at the opposite end of the planted area from the Zone Control, so that built up particles can be occasionally flushed out.
Drip Line System: This system is one in which the drip control valve connects to a grid system of dripline, which is either above grade, or just below grade, and has a set spacing of drip emitters along the dripline, and a set spacing between driplines, allowing for a grid spacing of emitters within a planted area. Each planted area should receive one or more flush caps for flushing, and an air relief valve if the dripline is below grade.
Hard Piped From Valve: The most permanent -- and expensive -- system is to hard pipe with PVC lateral pipe from the valve to each emission device.
General Rules of Drip Irrigation Design
Typical general rules of thumb that apply to drip irrigation include:
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