Drip Irrigation Systems Fight Back Against the Texas Heat

Plant and lawn maintenance boosts the curb appeal of any building, from a multi-family housing complex to a grocery store or business office. When your exterior greenery is well-maintained, lush, and green, it sets a great impression on visitors, who have confidence in what they’ll find inside. Plus, a green lawn is just pretty!

Keeping your lush landscaping means paying attention to what your plants need. Like people, plants don’t get all their nutrients in one lump – they slowly process them from the soil over time. Plants grow best and are healthiest when they receive both water and nutrients in a balanced way. Drip irrigation delivers this by adding nutrients in small, easily processed doses to the soil. The optimum growing conditions produce the best plants – and best of all? It’s budget-friendly.

What is Drip Irrigation?

Drip Irrigation is an efficient, low-pressure water delivery system. Strategically placed emitters are spaced throughout the landscaping, which release water directly into the root base of your plants at the perfect times for optimal growth. It’s like special delivery of everything your plants need at just the right time. The rubber piping of drip irrigation is arranged over your fields or landscape to place fertilizer and water at the right locations. Drip irrigation is customized for each property, considering its size, sunlight exposure, and type of plants and greenery there.

The Benefits of Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation is very water-efficient, which is especially important in states like Texas, where the hot summer sun bakes plants, and many communities are under water restrictions during the summer months. Traditional irrigation sprays water into the air, which may be misdirected by breezes or evaporate before reaching the soil. As plants grow, the larger ones can block the smaller ones and can even block the water from a traditional irrigation system.

When water falls on plants in traditional irrigation, only about 30% actually ends up reaching the roots of the plants. However, with drip irrigation, about 90% of the water reaches the plants. Plus, because gravity does most of the work for drip irrigation, it’s also energy-efficient, saving you money.

Because drip irrigation is so efficient, it may be exempt from the water restrictions in certain Texas municipalities. For example, Dallas and its suburbs have mandatory twice-weekly watering schedules, with certain times that business owners may water their landscaping. However, if you install drip irrigation on your property, then there will be no limits to your water because the system causes little waste.

Finally, maintaining drip irrigation systems is quite easy. The traditional irrigation systems have to be reconfigured as plants grow to ensure that some of the water will still reach them. Since drip irrigation is so close to the soil, it can stay in place as the plants grow – the leaves and growth aren’t blocking the release of water and valuable nutrients.

How to Combat Potential Challenges of Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation has so many benefits, especially for Texas business and property owners, that it’s difficult to see any drawbacks! However, there are a few minor disadvantages that can quickly be addressed.

When plants are small, sometimes the drip lines are visible. However, as the plants grow, they cover the lines, so the problem quickly solves itself. In fact, with the efficiency of drip irrigation and the fact that water and nutrients aren’t wasted when irrigation, the plants can grow faster, solving your problem very fast!

Drip irrigation requires some oversight and maintenance for all its benefits. Texas heat can cause the rubber piping of the drip lines to swell, which means that the joinings can separate easily in the summer. However, drip lines are incredibly easy to fix, using metal attachments. Because the line isn’t glued, they may separate more easily. However, you can rest easy knowing that toxic chemicals from glue and adhesives aren’t leeching into your plants’ soil, so they stay healthy and beautiful! Just make sure to check your drip lines consistently.

Do You Need Drip Irrigation?

Our licensed irrigators and certified irrigation technicians design and install drip systems that follow current Texas Commission on Environmental Quality standards. We can also handle spray to drip conversions, repairs and modifications, backflow inspections, diagnostic evaluations, and more.

Contact us today to learn more about how we can help design and maintain your drip irrigation system.