Backyard Nursery Irrigation.

Our original take on a backyard nursery irrigation system was just simple hoses, wands and sprinkler heads. The time came to, up our game when 2 things happened. Plants, lots of plants. Once you get over 1-2,000 plants in your nursery it is time to start thinking a little bigger.

Secondly, our house water runs off a well pump. During the first long dry spell we encountered, it became obvious that the house well pump was being over burdened. Therefore, we replaced the old pump once but after a couple years it was time to rethink using the well pump so heavily. Since we have a pond we decided to use it as our water source for at least part of the nursery watering.

Our video on our simple backyard nursery irrigation system.

A follow video from a recent irrigation system expansion

Nursery Irrigation if you have “City Water”

You are in luck! Yes, you can use sprinklers and hoses and perhaps never run out of water pressure or water volume. Our system will still work for you, just attach to your house, hose bib with a 3/4 inch high volume hose. Or you could run a line from your hose of 3/4″ or even larger PVC pipe. If you are using water from your city or well, be sure to install a backflow prevention device.

Most likely you may even be able to run far more sprinkler heads than we can from the pond pump. You may however live in a location where water is very expensive. In that case using a pond or stream may still be a better option due to the cost of water.

Laying out and putting together a small irrigation system.

Our watering system is relatively simple. It is comprised of some main 3/4 inch PVC lines with branches out to “risers,” on top of which screw in some simple orbital sprinkler heads. The steps were as follows:

Use some stakes or bamboo poles to mark where you want your sprinkler heads. Our heads will cover about a 30+ foot circle so to allow some overlap and square out the area we went with 25 foot centers.
Layout the PVC main line, then using T’s fittings layout your branch lines to the heads.
Install a ball valve so you can turn off each sprinkler head.
We used T’s, 4-way and 3 way fittings to make each riser able to stand without much support. Dropping a few plants on the pipes also helps stabilize them.

Some Updates on our Backyard Nursery Irrigation System

Since the original DIY Nursery Irrigation System layout we have made some changes and upgrades. The PVC is easy to cut so we could easily make changes as follows.

Changed the pump to the one listed below – great improvement in pressure.
Changed our pump to irrigation system feed hose to a full 3/4 inch hose x 100 ft. Improved overall water volume flow.
Added another zone of 2 more heads. We can now run 3 of the heads for 90-120 minutes and then run the 4 others for the same time. This is currently approximately 3/4 of all our current 6,000 plants. During this time we also run a sprinkler from the house well pump for a 3rd area. Total watering time for all 6,000+- plants is 3-4 hours, total.
We plan to run more 3/4 inch pipe and 2-4 more rotating heads so we can water entirely from the pond pump when needed. Handy in the event of a pump breakdown, power outage, or just to save wear and tear on the house well pump – they are expensive to replace.

Backyard Nursery Irrigation – some suggested materials

If you plan to draw water from a pond, lake or a stream you will need a water sprinkler type pump. These are different than transfer pumps or submersible type “Sump Pumps.”

This is the 110v, nursery irrigation pump we are using. These seem to be everywhere, look and function the same but come in different colors. Amazon has the best price, under $150.00. It’s a good working pump and gives a good supply of water volume and the pressure need to spin the orbital heads.

Note – Covering the intake hose bell end with some window screen is a great idea. Use some wire and make a sock to avoid picking up debris that will clog your sprinkler heads.

1 hp Sprinkler Pump for Nursery Irrigation

What size pipe should you use?

Using a 110v sprinkler pump, we knew we had some limitations with water pressure and volume. If you have great city water, pressure it would make sense to feed your system with 1 or 1 1/2 inch PVC pipe and then perhaps branch out some lines in 3/4 inch pipe and fittings.

We made our system entirely of 3/4 inch PVC pipe and feed it with a 3/4 inch hose. This is a pretty easy size to work with and sufficient for many backyard nursery irrigation systems.

3/4 Inch PVC fittings for a backyard nursery irrigation system.

Here is a selection of 3/4 inch fittings and valves you might use in a plant nursery irrigation system. We like to buy these in larger pack sizes of 12 to 24 pieces as the price per piece really drops. We have plans to expand our nursery so the fittings won’t go to waste. Remember to buy the Schedule 40 grade as these are for higher pressure and the most durable. These are shown for reference and note most are available in your big box home improvement stores.

PVC End Caps Needed where you need to cap off a line. These are 3/4 in size, Sch 40 quality and what we use.

PVC Ball Valve Need at least one main on/off valve and one per sprinkler head. These are 3/4 in size for 3/4 inch PVC Pipe.

LASCO 15-1623 PVC Hose Adapter with 3/4-Inch Female Hose and 3/4-Inch PVC Pipe Glue Connection, White
PVC Pipe to Garden Hose Adapter Allows you to connect 3/4 inch PVC pipe to a standard garden hose, Sch 40 quality. If you want to feed your Backyard Nursery Irrigation system with a hose, you will need one of these. I did later find these in my Big Box store but really had to look.

Specialty PVC Fittings

16 Pack PVC Elbow Fittings 3/4 Inch 3 Way PVC Pipe Fitting Connectors, PVC Pipe Tee Corner Fittings.

We love these, the possibilities are endless!

3 Way PVC Pipe Fitting Connectors

4-Way 3/4″ inch SCH40 PVC Fitting, Tee Pipe Fittings PVC Connectors. 4-Pack

Very good for your upright end. Water feeds in on the bottom from water source. 90 degree elbow up to sprinkler head riser tube. That leaves 2 open sockets to attach stabilizer pipes with caps, about 18 in long.

4 Way SCH40 PVC Fitting Tee Pipe Fittings PVC Connectors

Fittings for Sprinkler heads

You might use different heads than we did and there is more than one way to do this. Here is a link for reference.

This will be the adapter if you want to go from 3/4in PVC pipe down to 1/2in pipe thread for a Wiz type sprinkler head. If you plan to use a different type sprinkler head you will need a different fitting on top of your riser.

PVC Pipe Fitting, Adapter, Schedule 40, 1/2″ NPT Male x 3/4″ slip

Now choose the Sprinkler heads for your system

These are the original Signature 1973 Whiz Head Rotary Sprinkler heads. Used in nurseries for many decades! These spray an excellent and even pattern of water, they disperse the water into nice small droplets Vs some knockoffs that we tried. They are inexpensive and easy to mount. These have a 1/2 in female threads at the bottom.We recommend buying these from the Drip Depot at just around$9.00 each.

Signature 1973 Whiz Head Rotary Sprinkler

Attaching your water source to your DIY Backyard Nursery Irrigation system.

Attach to your water source using either solid PVC pipe or a heavy duty hose. For us we need to be able to shut our systems off in the winter and drain them. We did not want to dig any trenches to bury pipe. Eventually, we purchased a sufficient length of 3/4 in, inside diameter hose to connect our pump to our DIY, Backyard Nursery Irrigation system.

Here is an example of a good, 3/4 in hose that will stand up for a few years.

Flexzilla Garden Hose 3/4 in. x 75 ft., Heavy Duty, Lightweight, Drinking Water Safe, ZillaGreen. Be sure to buy a full 3/4″ hose for maximum water volume and pressure. These come from the Drip Depot, who we like ordering from.

See more of our Backyard Nursery articles and videos.

Backyard Nursery Resources
Starting a Plant Nursery
How to start a plant nursery
Starting a Backyard Plant Nursery
How to make Money with Plants
Plant Propagation