The Tropical Fruit Forum
Tropical Fruit => Tropical Fruit Discussion => Topic started by: elouicious on July 06, 2022, 10:41:05 AM
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Hey All-
In preparation for my move, I am getting an automated drip irrigation system online to hopefully reduce the watering work on my poor SO-
Here is a preliminary version of what I have done so far- any and all comments are welcome, I will update it as I continue to plug more parts of the system online
(https://i.postimg.cc/grz2dFJz/Slide2.jpg) (https://postimg.cc/grz2dFJz)
The start is in the middle by the 2 Shrubblers shown in green
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What I've learned in irrigation classes as well as gleaned from the guys at the irrigation supply stores in my area is to avoid having emitters with different flow rates on the same line. Ultimately it won't necessarily do anything bad, it just means you will have to take into account the different flow rates and length of time for watering for the different emitters.
Also, it's nice to have the system connect back to itself instead of dead ending. It helps to equalize pressure throughout the system.
Are these on different zones or are you planning on having it be one zone overall?
Getting everything on irrigation is such a game changer! Regular consistent watering has definitely brought so much amazing growth with all my in ground plants.
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Generally per plant you want to have two emitters, in case of failure of one (it happens). These are pretty low flow, .5 gph per tree ring or per emitter on the ring? Timing With the variable emitter rates will be interesting, how long would your run time be to get your desired application. What is your soil type?
For my trees in clay I have wrapped on grade inline tubing ranging from 4- 10 emitters (1 gph) on clay soil and it infiltrates just fine.
Is this for supplemental irrigation? I remember living in Houston getting dumped on with rain pretty regularly
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Drippers clog up. Drippers and bubblers dont cover enough area for roots to stretch out. Micro sprinklers and spinners do a better job of not clogging and also covering a larger area. 2gph is super low flow too. Those will need to run all day for a large tree. You can get micro sprinklers that will spit out 15-30gph.
As far as different flow rates, I dont think its a big deal. Bigger plant, bigger sprinkler same run time. Thats how I do it. I try and get as many trees on one line as possible and will use 2 differnt size emitters in one zone depending on tree size. You can aso get adjustable micrsprinklers and just dial them up or down depending the plants needs.
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My lessons have been:
1. Limit 1/4" use to short runs, it's pretty much done after 10'. 1/2" is losing pressure at around 200 ft. Limit the runs of smaller pipes when possible.
2. Limit the use of 90˚ connectors when possible, they reduce flow.
3. Try to evenly space tubes or pipes coming off of main lines when possible.
4. It is fine to use different emitters on the same line if they are adjustable.
5. I echo Brad in saying that drippers are probably fine for little baby geraniums in your front garden or whatever, but not appropriate for big trees. Even on a ring, too many emitters to take care of and have issues with leaks or whatever. Fewer = better.
6. Elevation matters and can reduce flow a lot.
I use micro sprinker spikes, 2 of them for big trees, 1 for small ones. The vortex ones are ok but kind of suck for tuning - but are very reliable and don't have as many issues. The "umbrella" style with a cap on top always get messed up and lose their cap and are just a jet after that. The 360˚ or 180˚ star pattern have their uses and I like them.
Your lay out looks good overall, just think about the emitter type and maybe do a test run with a 1/2" line to see how each one sprays, how far it goes, and make some decisions after that.
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Thanks for the great input all-
One clarification up front- I already have this set up- Just haven't completed the layout, or the schematic to what is currently out there
What I've learned in irrigation classes as well as gleaned from the guys at the irrigation supply stores in my area is to avoid having emitters with different flow rates on the same line. Ultimately it won't necessarily do anything bad, it just means you will have to take into account the different flow rates and length of time for watering for the different emitters.
Also, it's nice to have the system connect back to itself instead of dead ending. It helps to equalize pressure throughout the system.
Are these on different zones or are you planning on having it be one zone overall?
Getting everything on irrigation is such a game changer! Regular consistent watering has definitely brought so much amazing growth with all my in ground plants.
As far as the flow rates I put plants that were a little more thirsty on the 2gph emitters
I tried to essentially make it a close loop other than the spurt to the drain at the bottom but I could cut more 3/4" main in to close the loops in the left half of the page and bottom right- for now it is all on one zone with the water amount being modified by emitters/length of drip line
Generally per plant you want to have two emitters, in case of failure of one (it happens). These are pretty low flow, .5 gph per tree ring or per emitter on the ring? Timing With the variable emitter rates will be interesting, how long would your run time be to get your desired application. What is your soil type?
For my trees in clay I have wrapped on grade inline tubing ranging from 4- 10 emitters (1 gph) on clay soil and it infiltrates just fine.
Is this for supplemental irrigation? I remember living in Houston getting dumped on with rain pretty regularly
This is great advice, I tried to get "non-clog" emitters of a few varieties to see which hold up and which are garbage. (toro, drip depot, etc.) I got .5gph based on the fact that I have really hard clay soil- although I just put a major layer of pine mulch down. For the emittersthe dots are single 0.5gph emitters, for the rings they are made of the 0.5gph drip line. For trialing things I have been doing 2 5 minute runs, one in the morning and one in the evening- but I will probably ultimately go with 15 minutes at 5am
Yes supplemental- normally you'd be right but we seem to be a part of this drought doing on this year and the hot temps have been roasting things
Drippers clog up. Drippers and bubblers dont cover enough area for roots to stretch out. Micro sprinklers and spinners do a better job of not clogging and also covering a larger area. 2gph is super low flow too. Those will need to run all day for a large tree. You can get micro sprinklers that will spit out 15-30gph.
As far as different flow rates, I dont think its a big deal. Bigger plant, bigger sprinkler same run time. Thats how I do it. I try and get as many trees on one line as possible and will use 2 differnt size emitters in one zone depending on tree size. You can aso get adjustable micrsprinklers and just dial them up or down depending the plants needs.
I assumed that the non-clog advertisement on some of these will be garbage- I have to say after trialing some of the other types vortex and mister seem to be my favorite but i am worried about clogging on both, the 2gph microsprinklers are really weak and basically cover 1 3 gallon pot which is not what I had envisioned, luckily I only bought 10.
I figures a larger drip ring = more water and I have made them to the natural drip lined of the trees- a lot of what I have is still small so I will switch things out as they grow.
My lessons have been:
1. Limit 1/4" use to short runs, it's pretty much done after 10'. 1/2" is losing pressure at around 200 ft. Limit the runs of smaller pipes when possible.
2. Limit the use of 90˚ connectors when possible, they reduce flow.
3. Try to evenly space tubes or pipes coming off of main lines when possible.
4. It is fine to use different emitters on the same line if they are adjustable.
5. I echo Brad in saying that drippers are probably fine for little baby geraniums in your front garden or whatever, but not appropriate for big trees. Even on a ring, too many emitters to take care of and have issues with leaks or whatever. Fewer = better.
6. Elevation matters and can reduce flow a lot.
I use micro sprinker spikes, 2 of them for big trees, 1 for small ones. The vortex ones are ok but kind of suck for tuning - but are very reliable and don't have as many issues. The "umbrella" style with a cap on top always get messed up and lose their cap and are just a jet after that. The 360˚ or 180˚ star pattern have their uses and I like them.
Your lay out looks good overall, just think about the emitter type and maybe do a test run with a 1/2" line to see how each one sprays, how far it goes, and make some decisions after that.
I think I addressed 1-5 above. 6 is important and I have gotten pressure compensating drip lines and drippers for the most part. (another thing not shown in the schematic is that the U in the middle left is running underneath pallets where I have raised plants in pots meaning roughly 2-3 ft elevation rise to get to the pots) the 2gph sprinklers just don't have the coverage I am hoping for and given I can probably fit 15-18 3gallon pots on 1 pallet that is a lot of tubing and emitters to get set up
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If you have a lot of small plants, consider getting a big tray and then you can let the sprinklers be a bit messy - it'll fill the bottom of the tray and the plants will soak it up with bottom watering.
I have this issue and have TONS of jabos and eugenias in small pots and will be buying a couple more big 4x4' trays in which I will put all the small stuff - that way if I over water some plants and others don't get any, they can all drink from the same tray. My plan is to buy a dosatron so I can get accurate PH control for that stuff and my blueberries
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interesting idea K-Rimes, although it would kind of defeat the purpose of the pallets air-pruning the roots from the bottom and I do have species other than Eugenia and Plinia that do not like to get their feet wet-
I could re-organize and try to get them on 1 pallet though and set up your suggestion for that, which I think I will do
Brad- as far as the micro sprinklers- do you have any you would recommend in particular? seeing a million varieties and spray patterns. Also this was mainly for my potted plant setup, for the trees I have in ground I have the drip line rings for anything that is relatively large, and will swap out emitters for drip line rings as things grow. as far as sprayers vs. drip line rings for in ground trees what do you think?
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I have been using rain bird 0.5-2.0gph drip emitters for years. Short 1/4" tubing runs connected to larger mains, though the mains all dead end. I haven't noticed pressure issues based on distance from main, but I have noticed that the emitters clog frequently and often have HIGHLY variable output. I have ti replace about 10% of all emitters yearly.
I will probably switch to spray emitters when my current drip emitter supply runs out
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No i dont like drippers or tree rings because A.) Thry clog, and B.) The drippers only wet a tiny spot. Even if you have 10 of them its 10 small spots.
These are the parts I use
Rigid riser stake to hold 1/4" tubing thats 3 or 4 ft long from the 1/2" or 3/4" poly run. The 3 or 4 ft of 1/4" give me wiggle room to move the stake around and make a bigger or smaller pattern.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/300x300/1844/rigid-riser-holding-stake-26460.jpg)
For brand new tiny trees I use this DIG SNAP CAP 90 degree sprayer ( it makes a good circle pattern) 15pgh at 30psi.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/400x400/2008/dig-snap-cap-spray-jet-on-threads-42930.jpg)
Then after a year or 2 switch to this antelco adjustable 90 degree head that throws further and flows 30gph.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/400x400/2011/antelco-adjustable-spray-jet-on-threads-35418.jpg)
After 4 or 5 years the trees are large enough to switch to these spinning heads that cover a bigger area.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/200x200/1584/antelco-360-degree-adjustable-spinner-on-10-32-threads-74305.jpg)
Ive tried pretty much every kind of emitter they sell. This is just where I have ended up and Ive got probably around 500 stakes with these tips on them now. The really only issue is they are a pain to weed eat around. You have to be careful or the weed eater will destroy the tips and tangle the line and mess things up. The good thing about using poly tubing is its really easy to swap parts and change it up if you dont like what you have. And the parts are pretty cheap. I think the total bill is under 3 or 4$ per tree for the stuff Im using.
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Perfect!
Thank you so much- I am ordering something similar to adapt things now
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No i dont like drippers or tree rings because A.) Thry clog, and B.) The drippers only wet a tiny spot. Even if you have 10 of them its 10 small spots.
These are the parts I use
Rigid riser stake to hold 1/4" tubing thats 3 or 4 ft long from the 1/2" or 3/4" poly run. The 3 or 4 ft of 1/4" give me wiggle room to move the stake around and make a bigger or smaller pattern.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/300x300/1844/rigid-riser-holding-stake-26460.jpg)
For brand new tiny trees I use this DIG SNAP CAP 90 degree sprayer ( it makes a good circle pattern) 15pgh at 30psi.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/400x400/2008/dig-snap-cap-spray-jet-on-threads-42930.jpg)
Then after a year or 2 switch to this antelco adjustable 90 degree head that throws further and flows 30gph.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/400x400/2011/antelco-adjustable-spray-jet-on-threads-35418.jpg)
After 4 or 5 years the trees are large enough to switch to these spinning heads that cover a bigger area.
(https://stc.dripdepot.com/200x200/1584/antelco-360-degree-adjustable-spinner-on-10-32-threads-74305.jpg)
Ive tried pretty much every kind of emitter they sell. This is just where I have ended up and Ive got probably around 500 stakes with these tips on them now. The really only issue is they are a pain to weed eat around. You have to be careful or the weed eater will destroy the tips and tangle the line and mess things up. The good thing about using poly tubing is its really easy to swap parts and change it up if you dont like what you have. And the parts are pretty cheap. I think the total bill is under 3 or 4$ per tree for the stuff Im using.
Where is the best spot to pick these up? I bought my drip emitters from drip depot and I am looking for more
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I got mine from drip depot also
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everything brad listed is on drip depot- I ended up swapping some stuff for pressure compensating because I have some elevation changes (although now that I think about it pretty sure you have some major elevation changes brad, do you have any problems?)
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Brad, have you had experience with netafim supernet? I am rocking the Netafim supernet Purple SRD which have a 6 foot radius and flow at 5.3GPH, but can be modified to a 9 foot radius by breaking off the deflector. Pretty happy with them so far, minus the experience of ordering them haha.
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I was looking at netafilm- they sell them on drip depot
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Never tried the netafilm sprinklers but they look nice.
No issues with elevation or pressure drops here. How much elevation are you talking about? Some of my stuff drops like 30 ft but the valves are always at the high point.
Ive seen a lot more involved setups in big orchards where every row has a pressure regulator and theres buried pvc everwhere and expensive heads and valves everywhere. You can go crazy with the sprinkler stuff for sure, it just ends up costing a ton. I try and keep my stuff as simple and cneap as possible.
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Never tried the netafilm sprinklers but they look nice.
No issues with elevation or pressure drops here. How much elevation are you talking about? Some of my stuff drops like 30 ft but the valves are always at the high point.
Ive seen a lot more involved setups in big orchards where every row has a pressure regulator and theres buried pvc everwhere and expensive heads and valves everywhere. You can go crazy with the sprinkler stuff for sure, it just ends up costing a ton. I try and keep my stuff as simple and cneap as possible.
oh lord I am dealing with less than 10ft elevation change for sure- oh well a little more money went into the system, hopefully the sprayers are a bit higher quality as well- I am only on 1/4 acre here so the entire cost of the setup has been relatively managable, and hoping to ultimately save on water bill as well
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I agree with sentiment of drip emitters clogging issue. once you have a large yard with over 400 drips, it becomes a nightmere to maintain them. I prefer adjustable sprayers, although expensive it will payoff itself if it can save you few plants from dying and they are easy to see how well they function. Another good thing is when mulch gets hit with water from top, it helps it breakdown faster, specially in CA where we dont get much rain at all. I am planning out my 3/4 acre garden at my new home and I do plan on limiting the use of emitter drips to where I can physically see them like in vegetable raised beds. Also I dont like soaker tubes/emitter tubes as they clog up with salts build-up. its another nightmere to maintain and you only find the problem when your plant has already suffered.
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I agree with sentiment of drip emitters clogging issue. once you have a large yard with over 400 drips, it becomes a nightmere to maintain them. I prefer adjustable sprayers, although expensive it will payoff itself if it can save you few plants from dying and they are easy to see how well they function. Another good thing is when mulch gets hit with water from top, it helps it breakdown faster, specially in CA where we dont get much rain at all. I am planning out my 3/4 acre garden at my new home and I do plan on limiting the use of emitter drips to where I can physically see them like in vegetable raised beds. Also I dont like soaker tubes/emitter tubes as they clog up with salts build-up. its another nightmere to maintain and you only find the problem when your plant has already suffered.
Thanks for the input Behl,
Would love to see some plans for what you have at the new place whenever you have a chance- I am going to make a few more posts to look at the items I have acquired thus far for the drip irrigation and my (again preliminary) experience with them.
That said I plan to have this in place for a while and for some of the truly low water consumption trees (figs, citrus, white sapote, etc... I will kepp them on emitters or emitter rings for now. Most of the areas will be covered with a backup microsprinkler now and most of the areas are either mulched or raised beds
I think it also might be pertinent that I have an inline hose filter at the beginning of the system- which hopefully will minimize clogs-
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/three-quarter-inch-hose-thread-filter
(https://i.postimg.cc/fk6Xg3yr/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/fk6Xg3yr)
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/inline-hose-filter-by-global
(https://i.postimg.cc/94MrfVz9/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/94MrfVz9)
I am also considering adding a chlorine/chloramine filter commonly found on Amazon
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Drip Emitters:
Toro Turbo Plus II PC Cleanable Emitters - 0.5gph
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/toro-turbo-plus-ii-pc-cleanable-emitters
(https://i.postimg.cc/wR3V5nWR/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/wR3V5nWR)
I got these because they claim to be cleanable- So far they seem to be holding up to the stray piece of mulch well
Bowsmith Non-Clog Dripper - 0.6gph
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/bowsmith-non-clog-dripper
(https://i.postimg.cc/F1jsN1Gq/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/F1jsN1Gq)
This one claimed to not get clogged- Bowsmith seems to be a reliable company, so far no trouble with these
Antelco Agri Drip Pressure Compensating Dripper - 0.5gph
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/antelco-agri-drip-pressure-compensating-dripper
(https://i.postimg.cc/vx1K81wK/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/vx1K81wK)
I got this and the shrubbler because they were explicitly pressure compensating. (the Toro are under this category too but the name is not in the title) It seems like I do not need pressure compensating drippers (thanks Brad!) as I am dealing with less than 10 vertical feet of change
Antelco Shrubbler 360 Degree Pressure Compensating Dripper on Spike - 6-10gph
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/antelco-shrubbler-360-degree-pressure-compensating-dripper-on-spike
(https://i.postimg.cc/7Gz7xDQV/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/7Gz7xDQV)
I have to say these do not get anywhere near the spread that I was anticipating- the water spreads less than 6" and may be suitable for a 1-3g pot. I have to add the caveat that I still have a small leak at the start of the system that may be causing low pressure at certain points in my system but even the ones close to the hose bibb do not spread very far. Main advantage of these would be the water drips down the spike into the pot and is less likely to evaporate
Adjustable Dripper on 6" Stake - 180* and 360* 0-19gph
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/adjustable-dripper-on-6-inch-stake
(https://i.postimg.cc/LhHLdd3z/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/LhHLdd3z)
Same complaints as above for these- really only good for one small pot
Adjustable Vortex Fan Sprayer on 6" Stake by Tempo - 0-19.5gph
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/adjustable-vortex-fan-sprayer-on-6-inch-stake-by-tempo
These are starting to be good for pots in dense areas- I would say you can cover 3-5 3 gallon pots with one of these, but if the pressure falls they will only cover the pot you place it in
(https://i.postimg.cc/mzrLwS7F/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/mzrLwS7F)
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DIG 2 GPH Fogger Mister on Barbed Elbow
https://www.dripdepot.com/product/dig-2-gph-fogger-mister-on-barbed-elbow
(https://i.postimg.cc/67kcVMkM/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/67kcVMkM)
I got these mainly for species that have trouble with the super high temps we get here in the summer. (Ugni) So far they have pretty good coverage for small plants- 3g pot is probably the maximum. When they lose pressure they are just a dribble and it seems the heads can come off and get lost quite easily- I have gotten some garden stake clips to hold these in place because otherwise they are very difficult to aim
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Bowsmith Fan-Jet Assembly on 13" Spike -
https://www.dripdepot.com/item/bowsmith-fan-jet-assembly-on-13-inch-spike-nozzle-color-violet-spray-pattern-full-circle-trajectory-high-low-length-36-inch
(https://i.postimg.cc/640FmswW/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/640FmswW)
I just got these today but I can already tell this is what will work best for covering larger or densely potted areas- they work great so far
Jain Pressure Compensating Micro Sprinkler - 9.3gph
https://www.dripdepot.com/item/jain-pressure-compensating-micro-sprinkler-flow-9-3-gph-diameter-1one-and-a-half-feet-deflector-no
(https://i.postimg.cc/SYsH3TKc/image.png) (https://postimg.cc/SYsH3TKc)
I haven't had a chance to set one of these up yet
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Also, it's nice to have the system connect back to itself instead of dead ending. It helps to equalize pressure throughout the system.
Highly recommend this since you are almost looped already.
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how would you close the loop pineislander? one potential problem is my driveway is between the two portions on the right half of the page-
That said its gravel and I could do a bit of (backbreaking) digging to put the poly underground
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also what PSI is everyone running?
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If it is hard digging I would put PVC under the driveway. Use compression adapter inside a 1/2" coupling or elbow & push in the poly tubing.
https://www.sprinklerwarehouse.com/compression-adapter-1-2-in-x-700-in-slip-10-ct-ca700-10pk
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You would want to do a schedule 40 1” (minimum) pipe sleeve under the driveway then run the line through. It will protect the poly and if something goes wrong you won’t have to dig up the driveway again
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so basically you are saying lay pvc under the gravel and feed poly through?
2 questions-
1. Why not just have an adapter to pvc and run the water through the pvc for the portion under the driveway?
2. I am running 3/4" poly for the main line on most parts- so would a 1" pvc with a 3/4" poly compression adaptor work?
I am experiencing pressure loss at a few points in the system- going to try to close most of the loops to see if that corrects it-
I am running less than 500' of total line but I have a ton of emitters
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so basically you are saying lay pvc under the gravel and feed poly through?
2 questions-
1. Why not just have an adapter to pvc and run the water through the pvc for the portion under the driveway?
That was my advice. No need to run poly through PVC, that is twice the cost. 3/4" PVC buried will be fine under a driveway. When you backfill, be sure to pack dirt/sand/gravel under the PVC so it is supported before covering. You can use a water hose to settle the fill.
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Thank you so much!
Got another project to try to get done before the move
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Yeah, that makes more sense haha. In the profession you sleeve anything under a drive like that but for home stuff that’s fine
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Yeah, that makes more sense haha. In the profession you sleeve anything under a drive like that but for home stuff that’s fine
Its sound advice. I would throw an electrical conduit in there for future use as well.
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I did some tests this afternoon and I think there are a confluence of problems causing some low pressure points in my system
- I have a few runs of 1/4" poly that are more than 10 feet - tested by closing these off with goof plugs (saw some rise in pressure)
- Elevation - Tested by placing the sprinklers on the ground instead of the pots on pallets (bigger rise in pressure)
- Not a closed loop
- possibly too many emitters
At this point I have resolved to close the loop by running ~20ft of 3/4" or 1" pvc under the driveway. (I tested digging with a pickaxe and it actually wasn't so bad) I think I will just connect the poly to the pvc and have the water run through the pvc instead of sleeving it, but if it is a relatively easy DIY I could be convinced to sleeve it. If I have dead ends into drip lines (like on the bottom left of the picture) is this a problem? I could also close these loops
I think this will solve problems 2 and 3 (dear god please) but as far as point #1 goes I am not sure If I should close the loop on the 1/4" poly runs, swap the 1/4" poly runs for 1/2" (again closing the loop back to the 3/4" main) or just go with some sprinklers that will cover area
I don't think there is much of a way around #4- I have a ton of plants and especially if I am trying to put 2 emitters per plant in ground the number will be in the 100's
Any and all help appreciated- my time to fix this is dwindling
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It sounds like you have a lot of plants and this is overly complex using emitters / micro sprinklers for each and every plant. In areas with density, just use a spinner like Brad is suggesting. They really soak a big area real quick. Fine for a bunch of trees in a lawn like area.
You will have a ridiculous amount of maintenance with 100 emitters. I'm managing maybe 40 emitters and it's a lot, almost requiring daily viewing of them running, adjusting them open to clear blockages then back to proper spray, losing caps due to over pressure, etc
My experience recently when my well coughed up manganese chunks is that drippers can be just as much a curse as blessing because I had to go and uncap each and everyone to clear the blockages...
Don't take a long trip expecting everything will be perfect on your return. I am leaning more and more to using spinners for my densely planted areas!
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Thanks K-Rimes, I have completely abandoned the idea of an emitter for every plant-
I have already implemented sprinklers in the areas where things are densely planted in ground and, honestly, everything in ground is covered.
The problem is with the elevated pots-
I got the Jain pressure compensating sprinklers which claim they can do 15' circular- I'm getting maybe 1-2'
they work better than the non-pressure compensating drippers but when I drop one of those sprinklers down to the ground it is probably covering 4-5'
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Hmm sounds like you might have a pressure issue. Are you overloading the distribution line with flow from other sprinklers? I don't think water hammer is an issue because it sounds like you are still getting some flow. Do you have a filter and pressure reducer on your line?
I have around 400 or so emitters and very rarely have any issues with clogs or heads popping off. Pretty stoked with the netafim supernets. I'm on well water too and don't have major issues, I'm sure I will at some point though.
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Hmm sounds like you might have a pressure issue. Are you overloading the distribution line with flow from other sprinklers? I don't think water hammer is an issue because it sounds like you are still getting some flow. Do you have a filter and pressure reducer on your line?
I have around 400 or so emitters and very rarely have any issues with clogs or heads popping off. Pretty stoked with the netafim supernets. I'm on well water too and don't have major issues, I'm sure I will at some point though.
It's a bit puzzling-
I'm going to look for kinks in the main line that can be replace as well- I have less that 400 emitters
One thing is I am using the inline filter mentioned in a previous post but I also have a chlorine/chloramine filter which I suspect may be reducing the flow- I am very happy with the setup so far but as I suspected getting things fine tuned is a bit of an art- I'm gonna take a massive amount of pictures this weekend to see if that will help with tips