The Easiest Way to Bury Drip Tape in the Vegetable Garden

Why We Bury Drip Tape in the Garden

There are several techniques when it comes to burying drip tape in the garden. The easiest way to maximize garden production with effective irrigation and steady water-soluble fertilizers is through the use of drip tape. Most people believe that drip tape can be used either on top or buried in the soil. However, drip tape was really made to go underneath the soil in the garden. This allows the tape to stay in place, decrease disease pressure and damage by natural causes, and provides accurate nutrients for plant growth. Not only does it apply equal amounts of irrigation to the plant, but it conserves water by going directly to the plant roots in the vegetable garden, unlike overhead irrigation systems.

The Easiest Way to Bury Drip Tape

On this week's episode, Travis demonstrates the best methods for burying drip tape. Drip tape can be buried up to six inches deep in the soil. He usually only buries his tape around three to four inches deep in the ground. If you do not have our Single, Double or High Arch Wheel Hoe the best way to do this is to use a long handle garden hoe. Taking the garden hoe you will make a little trench where you would like your row to go. Once you have dug out the trench lay the drip tape down in it with the emitters facing upwards and then cover it up with the garden hoe. Another option would be to take our Double Wheel Hoe with the Plow Set and make a furrow to lay the drip tape by hand in the row then turn those plows around to cover the row back up. The last and easiest option is to use our Double Wheel Hoe with the Drip Tape Layer attachment. Usually laying drip tape is a two-person job, with this tape layer attachment it makes it a simple one-person job. It lays the tape and covers it simultaneously in one pass through. When installing the drip tape layer it contains four simple pieces that come with it. The first piece is the roller guide assembly which is used to place the tape into the little roller which guides it through the sleeve and directs it towards the ground. Once the tape goes through the roller guide assembly it will roll along to the roll layer. The roll layer has a grooved out piece that guides and holds the drip tape. Next, you have a bracket that sits on top of the wheel hoe toolbar which holds the roll of drip tape in place. The last piece that goes with the drip tape layer attachment is the spool axle. The spool axle is what the drip tape layer sits on and contains two knobs on each side that allows you to adjust the tension to whatever you prefer. The last attachment to add is the plow set to the back of the double wheel hoe. The plow sets will cover up the drip tape when you go along the row and lay it. While the drip tape layer attachment can be really easy to install if you do a lot of drip tape laying, Travis suggests having a dedicated double wheel hoe just for drip tape. Having this dedicated drip tape layer wheel hoe will save you a lot of time and make things easier in the vegetable garden. The easiest way to bury drip is by following these simple methods or using our drip tape layer attachment.