How to Use Flag Drippers in a Drip System Setup

Choose the flow capacity you need. Flag drippers come in color-coded one, two and four gallons-per-hour outputs. One-gallon emitters (a bit much for potted plants) might be enough for in-ground plants that will be staying fairly small (as in a vegetable garden) and where the soil stays fairly moist. Where the growing season is hot and dry, 2-gallon drippers are handiest, especially for landscaping plants -- if one isn't enough, just add more.

Prepare to install either a dripper itself, or 1/4-inch "spaghetti" feeder line tubing (with drippers), onto the 1/2-inch mainline tubing by punching a hole. Press the specially-designed punch firmly into the appropriate place on the mainline, keeping the punch in the hole.

Add drippers directly to the mainline tubing if it's well-positioned for your plant. Push the barb of the emitter into the prepared hole (listen for a click). This takes some arm strength -- push with one hand atop the other if needed, and wear gloves to avoid hurting your fingers. Pull back on the dripper to make sure it's snug.

With a flag dripper, you can add spaghetti tubing to the dripper itself instead of placing the dripper onto the feeder line. If you want to place drippers in multiple spots along the spaghetti tubing, you'll need to use couplers to connect up the pieces.

Add drippers to 1/4-inch tubing with straight, double-barbed couplers. Push one barb into the hole on the mainline's side. Push the spaghetti tubing onto the other end of the coupler. Stretch it out to the site of your plant (not more than several feet) and push the emitter's barb into the end.

Add multiple emitters to the spaghetti feeder line if desired. In this case, you'll have one dripper at the end of the tubing and use T-shaped connectors to insert other emitters nearby. Cut the tubing back a little way from the end and insert each side onto the T's crossbar. Attach another piece of tubing (measured to reach to the other side of the plant) to the stem of the T -- insert another dripper at the end.

To add further drippers, just snip the line apart again, unite the pieces with another T, and add another piece of line-with-emitter. Encircle a larger plant this way, or add emitters as plants or your garden plans grow.