Drip irrigation for a vegetable garden?

Question

I'm installing a drip irrigation system for a vegetable garden and i was wondering if anyone knows how much water should be placed on the plants and how often.If anyone has used a system i would appreciate their advice.I have 4.0 gph emitters right now and was thinking of 30 minute cycles twice a day.Too much ,too little? I'm in the west Texas desert.
The soil was clay but i have added a lot of top soil and steer manure so it drains well.
I have bush green beans tomatoes squash radishes broccoli brussel sprouts cucumbers chili peppers and romaine lettuce I'm not expecting much from the broccoli and brussel sprouts just trying to see if they will go here.Thanks in advance.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Typically vegetables prefer something like 1" of water per week.  Multiply this by the square footage of your garden, and convert to gallons to see how much water your system should need to output .

If necessary, you could also use mulch to help conserve the amount of water needed.  Mulch helps the soil to retain its moisture, reducing the total amount of water needed.

Mark M · Answer

I'm pretty sure there's a good swath of info on this in Shepard Ogden's book, "Straight Ahead Organic".   I seem to remember some specifics in there.

Drip irrigation for a vegetable garden?

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