From niche to necessary

Time is money. But so is water. With water rates rising in the majority of the country, and water scarcity being a hot-button issue, more and more irrigation companies are turning to drip irrigation to service their clients’ needs.

And the manufacturers of irrigation equipment are doing what they can to make technicians’ lives easier and add some consistency to the installation process — while also raising awareness to the benefits of drip irrigation.

Exact irrigating

While drip irrigation is nothing new to the green industry, Senior Product Manager at Hunter Industries, Gaurav Mathur, explains it first made its mark in agriculture.

“Drip started years back in the agricultural industry in the 60s and it made its mark in the commercial landscape business in the 90s and early 2000s,” he says. “The primary intent is water savings — because water is finite.”

Peter Lackner, marketing manager for residential and commercial irrigation and lighting with Toro, says at times it can be difficult to harmoniously market all the different types of irrigation equipment Toro offers. While some have different advantages than others, he adds there is room for everything within the industry.

“It’s a balancing act for manufacturers who also sell other forms of irrigation,” Lackner says. “Overhead irrigation certainly has its place, but compared to traditional overhead irrigation, drip irrigation puts water closest to the roots, which means there’s zero chance for overspray.

“Misting is also a non-issue with drip,” he adds. “In the case of subsurface drip, there’s no chance for evaporation either since it’s all underground right where the roots are.”

In addition to having the water zero in on the targeted area, Mathur says drip irrigation is also extremely beneficial in achieving irrigation uniformity — or having an even amount of water being distributed to an area.

“At the same time, it’s also trying to help create irrigation uniformity,” Mathur says. “Irrigation uniformity is all over the place — and even the best of the best manufacturers can deliver irrigation uniformity only up to a certain point… Drip irrigation is a product that gives you almost 100% irrigation uniformity, and also saves more water than anything else available in the market today.”

What’s new & what’s next

Because drip has become a tried-and-true form of irrigation, the basic mechanics and products haven’t changed too much in recent years.

Mike Merlesena, national commercial sales manager with DIG Corporation, says there haven’t been too many advancements in the technology behind drip irrigation.

“We’ll have some new products here or there but it’s really just different emission devices. The wheel hasn’t really been reinvented in a while,” Merlesena says. “Like with anything, products do get better and better as time goes by.”

Lackner adds that while the installation process is mainly the same, manufacturers are working to improve things.

“Most advancements have been more so on the manufacturing side,” he says. “It’s always about trying to get components smaller and at a lower cost. Performance has been improving as well.”

One key area of performance Toro, and other manufacturers, are targeting, is pressure regulation and compensation.

“Back in the day, pressure compensation was relatively unheard of,” he says. “You would see a lot more water coming out of emitters closer to the point of connection compared to the very end of the line. Now, especially in landscaping, almost everything is pressure compensating to ensure a more even distribution of water.”

Lackner adds that with more irrigation crews using drip, Toro is attempting to make things easier for them to improve efficiency.

“We’re making drip a little more user-friendly, so we’ve come out with a spray head retrofit kit since a lot of municipalities across the country are mandating drip in certain applications. We’ve made it easier to retrofit an existing spray head zone to drip by swapping out a spray head zone with our conversion kit,” he says.

And according to Lackner, it’s something that crews really appreciate.

“We have been asked for it for some time,” he says. “Most of the legislation has been for new installations, but there’s definitely a need for the ability to retrofit as well.”

Merlesena says that DIG Corporation is also looking to assist crews in the installation process, and the company has a new solution.

Traditionally, dripline comes in a variety of sizes ranging from 15- to 17-millimeters. Most sizes call for a specific fitting to be used for connection, but DIG has created its new Nutloc Fitting, which fits all standard sizes.

“You have these three sizes in the half-inch arena, so we have a very unique fitting that can be used for all three sizes of that tubing,” he says. “That’s something new and cool from our standpoint.”

For Mathur and Hunter Industries, effective drip comes down to more than just the tubing — so they are seeking to improve the more “active” components of a drip irrigation system.

“Basically, we should look at drip irrigation not as a subject, but as a complete system solution,” he says. “People get narrowed down to thinking about just the drip tube itself, but a drip tube doesn’t do much if you don’t have a valve, regulator or a filter.

“There are passive devices and there are active devices. The controllers and the valves are active devices. Then your passive devices are the drip tubes themselves,” Mathur adds. “The technology is moving more on the active side of things, and how we can get even more precise irrigation.”

That’s where smart controllers and wireless connections will come into play.

“We have quite a few things in the pipeline,” Mathur says.

The technology behind the products will also continue to be important as drip irrigation goes underground.

“Drip irrigation is moving subsurface,” Mathur says. “We have copper drippers now. So, our line of HDL copper allows you to do subsurface irrigation and keeps root intrusion in mind. It does not eliminate root intrusion, but studies have shown that copper and roots don’t like each other.”

But where that copper is used is critical. Mathur says in order to prevent contamination it shouldn’t be placed in the emitter itself.

“There are people doing copper in different forms — some people put a copper plate inside the emitter, but the problem there is they are now leeching copper into the water, which is not good for the landscape,” he explains. “Some manufacturers, like us, use copper on the outside and it is a part of the molding process. Therefore, we are taking the copper particles and basically mixing it with the resin and at a certain percentage. That does not leech into the soil.”

Location, location, location

As the technology behind drip irrigation continues to advance, so does the need for water savings throughout the country.

What was once primarily practiced out west is now spreading as more states pass watering restriction and drip irrigation legislation.

“I’ve been involved with drip for about 15 years now, and at first drip was something that contractors used only when needed,” Lackner says. “Like if they had a small zone up against the house to water some shrubs, it was more of a niche category if you will. Now, it’s definitely a mainstay…There’s some places like Arizona where drip has been around for forever, but in places like California, it’s something that has exploded over the past 10 years.

“Contractors don’t really have a choice at this point,” he adds. “They have to make sure they have drip in the back of their truck.”

Mathur says that changing weather patterns, like extremely hot summers in the Northeast and deep freezes in Texas, will call for stricter watering practices.

“In the Northeast, where you used to have an abundance of water, drip irrigation was not that popular,” he says. “But the seasons are changing, and global warming is making things different. I can see drip irrigation expanding into other parts of the U.S.”

Merlesena says this will call for more education on drip irrigation throughout the industry.

“The further east you go, the knowledge of drip definitely goes down since there is a more abundant supply of water,” he says. “Self-education, going to tradeshows, talking to your distributors and doing your research on manufacturers’ websites can help you discover what’s out there.”

And while it may be the way of the future, Merlesena doesn’t expect drip to take off as rapidly back east.

“It’s like anything, the more time that goes by and the more information that’s readily available, I think drip will continue to grow,” he says. “But at the end of the day, it’s still somewhat of a niche compared to the overall irrigation market even in the biggest markets like California.”

Mathur sees a different path forward for drip in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

“The market is very strong and is still growing in the double digits year-over-year, globally,” he says. “There is more and more need for drip and micro-irrigation. It’s growing fast in countries that are new to drip as well in the Middle East and South America. There are a lot of exciting times coming in drip irrigation.”

Lackner predicts that subsurface drip irrigation will be the next big thing as it saves even more water.

“Subsurface drip is the next step,” he says. “I think that’ll be the next trend. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more legislation specifically calling out subsurface drip. That’ll take drip to the next level and even high efficiency.”

The author is an associate editor with Lawn & Landscape magazine.