SPRINKLER TALK FORUM - You Got Questions, We've Got Answers

My backyard has shrubbery planted around the entire perimeter and next to the house with 2 spray zones used to water everything. The shrubs have grown to the point that many of the spray heads only water one bush/tree instead of the intended 4-5. Most of the plants have matured to the point where I don't think extending, adding, and repositioning spray heads to get good coverage is the way to go. Thus, I think I want to convert these zones to drip zones.

I have about 130 plants with a wide range of water requirements. In my yard I have: base plants that are trees (crape merytl, cherry laurel, arborvitae); flowering shrubs (gardena, azalea's); non-flowering (box wood, dwarf youpons, indian hawthorn, nandina); and flowers. Most of the base plant are evenly spaced about 4 feet apart. Everything else is ramdomly spaced. With all this, in my mind, it seems simple enough to just snake a drip tube around the plants.

As far as drip goes, I've got two options: 1) use blank drip distribution tubing and insert drip emitters at each plant or 2) use drip tubing with inline emitters. If I decide to go the blank drip tubing/insert drip emitters route, I estimated I will need about 300 emitters (various number of emitters and precipitation rates for each type of plant). That's seems like a lot emitter inserting. If I go the inline emitter route I may have situations where I may not get proper water distribution. However, they way things are now, 60% of the plants don't get any water.

So, any thoughts/experiences/recommendations on my two options?

Thx

Thanks guys.

Now another question related to fittings. Rainbird offers two types of fittings to use with their dripline; XF Insert (barbed) fittings and Easy Fit Compression. Anyone have any experience using either of these two and if so, which ones do you prefer?