What to do when your irrigation drip system springs a leak. And if you love the look of an empty garden as much as I do, the first photo is for you. All those rounded, mounded beds just waiting to sprout green.
I know you might think that watering systems are boring and fixing watering systems is even more boring. To counter that there will be a photo of a snake somewhere in this post.
It will appear out of nowhere to surprise you, making this potentially dull post an exciting game of wait for the snake.
If you're on the fence about installing a watering system because it seems confusing and difficult go read the post I wrote about how to install drip irrigation and how much I love it.
I have a thing for making watering easy because it's not where I shine in terms of being a gardener. I shine at letting things dry out, wither away and die.
The posts below highlight my love of automatic watering plus there's a post on why and how you should be using water to eliminate powdery mildew.
True story. Water doesn't *cause* powdery mildew. Dry weather does. I know. It's a shocking true story.
Back to the drip irrigation tape that's sprung a leak. There are 2 types of leaks you can get in your tape. A big one and a small one.
A big leak where the water is pouring out.
A tiny leak that sprays a thin stream of water straight across the garden.
Both can be fixed without replacing the whole line.
Table of Contents
How to Fix a Leaking Drip Line
To fix a big leak use a coupler. Just cut the hole out of the line and join it back together with the coupler.
To fix a small leak use regular electrical tape. Establish where the leak is, and wrap the tape around it.
Would you like to save this stuff?
We'll email you this post, so you can refer to it later.
If you have standard ⅝" drip line these are the couplers that will fit your system.
- Just cut the hole out and rejoin the line with a coupler (connector).
- Turn the water on to find the leaks. MARK where the holes are with a line in the soil or a small rock otherwise you'll never find them once the water is turned off.
- Turn the water off. Dry the line if it's wet.
- Stretch the electrical tape multiple times around the hole keeping the tape tight and pressing as you go.
- Turn the water back on to test it.
It might not be 100% watertight but at least you aren't spraying water across the garden. And if it does still drip after taping that's a good thing. It is drip tape after all.
This line had 2 tiny holes next to each other.
The line still leaks after the repair, but it's dripping down like it should, not spraying across the garden onto your bum.
These methods aren't permanent fixes but they'll add another few weeks or even months to your drip tape's life. Once the repair needs repairing, it's time to replace the entire line of drip tape.
Why Do This?
💰 Cost Efficient
Drip line costs between $50-150 a roll depending on the thickness of it and the amount. By repairing your lines before replacing them your roll and $$$ will go a lot further.
🌎 More Environmentally Friendly
The less plastic you can use throughout your day/week/month/life the better.
⏱️ Quick Fix
Mending the tape with a coupler or electric tape is faster than replacing the line.
💧 Better for the Plants
Pulling out a drip line from a fully grown bed is easy. Getting that drip line back down again is harder because you have to navigate it through the branches, leaves and fruit of grown plants.
TIP
The more regularly you water, the faster your plants will grow, and the less you'll have to weed.
Your big, beautiful vegetable plants will shade & choke out the weeds as they grow.
ALL OF MY WEEDING TIPS, TOOLS & TACTICS are in this post right here.
And here's the snake everyone has been waiting for.
The Eastern Garter snake. This one took a long time before it spotted me taking its picture, at which point it jumped.
Yes. Jumped.
The most surprising thing about my garden isn't the snakes, it's the fact that the toads haven't moved out because of them.
If you thought this post was exciting just wait until I hit you with the "fertigation" post I'm working on. Fertilizing your garden organically and automatically using your drip system. More on that, in a couple of weeks.
John
You are a hoot Karen! Thanks for the inspiring tales of arriver à faire for home improvement. Your humor is spot on.
Ellen
Another helpful post. I'm loving my hoop cover for my cucumbers and squash. Made with your directions. I plan to use the drip tape on the garden next year. Thanks for all the great info.
Karen
You're welcome! Another really good quick garden tip coming up next week. :) ~ karen!
Shannon Anaya
Longest week ever! I’ve missed seeing what stuff you’ve been up to. Hope you are well :)
Kat
YOU startled a SNAKE?! Let me guess, gardening in the nude again? New hairdoo? Interesting footwear choice? 😉😁
Karen
Now that you mention it, I guess me startling the snake is on the ironic side.😆 ~ karen!
Kat
I bet all his little friends are laughing at him. - YOU got startled by a HUMAN?!
Ha! Ha! - He will forever be the laughingstock of the community garden snakes. For shame! Lol 😂
Ann Riffe
Loved the snake! My yard snake is a black snake. I put piles of tree branches, roots, and trunks around the perimeter of my yard to protect the snakes, lizards and frogs.
Aimee
Hi! Long time reader here. I appreciate you! I'm finally putting in a garden and have a stupid question... how does watering the corn above plastic mulch get water down to the roots? Doesn't it just go down the sides of the bed onto the paths? Thanks for being an advocate for all gardeners!
Karen
Hi Aimee. Thanks! Good question. If you have drip tape, it goes underneath the row cover on the corn. If you use a sprinkler, hose or just rely on rain, the holes around each seed allow the water to penetrate to the soil below. I recommend making the holes 4" across or so to let enough water in and allow room for the corn stalk which gets pretty big. ~ karen!
Michelle
Karen you Rock. I totally enjoy reading the things you write. But PLEASE don’t buy into the lgbtq agenda that is being used to manipulate the world. I don’t care who is what, but PLEASE don’t perpetuate the agenda by doing rainbow things like you’re clever. It’s not helpful and a lot of common sense people are turning away from anyone or thing that focuses their business on it. It’s simply an agenda from the UN amd all developed governments. It does nothing but cause division. Please don’t segregate people with that rainbow thing. Love all. No matter they identify. Thanks for listening.
Karen
Hi Michelle. Thanks! But I'll be keeping the Pride logo for June and am very happy to show my support for all my gay friends, family members and neighbours. ~ karen!
Joy
Thank you for being you and not bending to comments like the one you responded to. If people have tuned out because of your show of support…,it is their loss!!
Mary W
Karen, your garden looks amazing! Watering system is definitely the cause! Hard work is important but when the garden looks this good, who calls it hard work?
Karen
I do. I call it hard work, lol. ~ karen!
Lyn Richards
Hi Karen, Nice snake & toad pics! I'm glad they live in your garden. Thanks for the big-leak tip; using a coupler is brilliant! About taping small leaks: have you not yet met Magic Tape? Really, that's its name, not just a fond nickname given by grateful users. It's stretchy, unlike electrical tape, and you stretch it as you wrap it around the leak plus a few centimetres either side. I even used it to tape up the hole a rat chewed in my dishwasher outlet hose, so it will take pressure and heat. (I wasn't sure it would withstand a frustrated rat's teeth, however, so I wrapped the fixed section in steel wool). Thanks for all the great info!
Karen
I have not purchased it, but I'll look into it! I'm sure it would work great, but for a quick fix, electrical tape works great and most people have a roll of it in their house. ~ karen!
Randy P
A reliable gardener friend once told me to use horse manure on my strawberries. The heck with that, I'm going back to whipped cream.
Mary W
It took just a moment to understand you weren't talking about gardening and I thought I've never heard of whipped cream - then it hit me and I laughed harder - once for the joke and another at myself. Thanks!
Karen
I read half of your comment and immediately thought ... hmm ... I'd use sheep manure. Now I'm thinking you're partly right. Whipped sheep manure might be better. ~ karen!
Kay
Hide your mixing bowls ladies and gents! 😂