What are the Four Different Types of Drip Irrigation Tubing Available from Orbit?

For any micro watering system one of the most important pieces is the tubing. The tubing is responsible for delivering the water to your sprinklers, emitters and misters. This of course delivers the water to your cherished plants. There are several kinds of tubing available and each type has a specific purpose. When purchasing drip irrigation tubing it is important you buy the tubing you need for you application.

Four different kinds of tubing available from Orbit Irrigation:

½” Distribution tubing
¼” Distribution tubing
Soaker tubing
Emitter tubing

½” distribution tubing is usually used as the main water supply. The ½” tubing will run from your tap or timer to the ¼” distribution tubing, soaker tubing and emitter tubing. You can purchase the ½” tubing in lengths of 50, 100 and 500 feet. It can be used above and below ground

¼” distribution tubing is usually used to connect from ½” tubing to sprinklers, emitters and misters. The ½” tubing is your supply line and you need to punch a hole in this line and connect the ¼” tubing with a ¼” barbed coupler. The hole is punched with a drip irrigation tubing punch.

Soaker tubing is very similar to soaker hose that we are all familiar with using in our garden. You will want to connect it to the ½” supply line using the ¼” barbed connector and the drip irrigation tubing punch. You can also connect it to the ¼” supply line but you will want to use ¼” barbed tee connector. Make sure you place an end plug in the end of the soaker tubing or water will pour out the end. Also the soaker tubing should not be more than 15’ long. Laser soaker tubing comes in 15’ and 60’ lengths. And the porous soaker tubing comes in 50’ and 100’ lengths.

Emitter tubing is used for spot watering and it is designed to put an emitter every 12 inches. Like the soaker tubing, you connect it to the supply line with the ¼” barbed connector. Also, make sure you place an end plug in the end of the tubing.

For watering two hanging baskets we used the ¼” tubing to connect from the sprinkler timer too two adjustable mist sprayers. If we were going to add more mist sprayers or emitters we would have use the ½” tubing as our supply line and then connected the sprayers with the ¼” tubing.

For more information on micro watering system please read this article on Planning a Drip Irrigation System.