Thursday, September 29, 2016

6 Tips to Winterize Your System

The time to put most gardens to bed is drawing closer as the days get shorter and the temperature drops. As we savor our garden’s bounty by canning, drying, freezing, and eating the wonderful fruits and vegetables, we must keep in mind that an unexpected frost might be on its way.


In most parts of the country there is a real concern about freezing and frost damage to a drip system during winter. There are two areas of concern: the beginning of the system (timer, valves, and filter) and low spots in the system where water may settle.
  1. Battery timers, filters, and regulators should be brought indoors with the batteries removed from the timers.
  2. When the battery timer is removed from the faucet and system, use the HPLUG to plug the beginning of the mainline tubing or use a plastic bag over the opening. Do not leave the lines open.
  3. After the main water supply is shut off, open all manual valves and set automatic valves to manual open. Remove all end fittings, drain any water, and then loosely replace the ends.
  4. In flat areas elevate the mainline to make sure all water drains out of the fittings.
  5. For low spots in the mainline tubing, either use a flush valve or insert a basic emitter at the lowest point.
  6. Another practice is to blow compressed air through the lines after opening the end cap.
To protect your late summer garden and extend your growing season, a protective lightweight row cover material such as Agribon protects early and late season crops from both wind and frost. It can be placed over your veggies and weighted down with wood or metal stakes. Heavyweight galvanized loop hoops are available to help support the row cover fabric.


Cody is an employee and used the produce which we grow for employees to make this tasty salsa.
Here is one of his salsa recipes to spice up your harvest. The tomatoes, tomatillos, and peppers are from the Dripworks demonstration garden.


For a chance of all year gardening Dripworks offers hoop houses and Solexx greenhouses. Check them out at Dripworks.com.

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Location: Dripworks

3 comments:

  1. VelmaOctober 1, 2016 at 5:28 PM

    How does one go about blowing compressed air through the lines?

    ReplyDelete
  2. DripWorksOctober 5, 2016 at 11:39 AM

    When blowing out your lines with compressed air make sure that all ends are off the irrigation system to prevent damage. An air compressor can be used to blow out the lines, to ensure that no damage will happen when blowing out lines do not use more than 30 PSI to do so.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ClaudioOctober 17, 2016 at 12:00 AM

    I have a small air compressor and purchased an adapter from "Vibrant Yard Company" - available on Amazon. Search for "winterize sprinkler adapter" and it should be the first hit. Get the one with the shutoff valve - that way you can charge up your compressor and send high psi down the sprinkler line to blow it out.

    My system is pretty small, so this works for me. If you have a huge network, you may want to hire a professional to winterize your lines.

    Here is more info on the adapter and options available: http://lawn-aerator-attachment.com/air_compressor_to_garden_hose_adapter.html

    ReplyDelete

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