How to Punch Holes in the Tube for Drip Irrigation

Providing the prized plants in your garden or yard with the correct amount of water is necessary to maintain their health and attractiveness. The task can prove challenging to do efficiently, though, if you attempt to water each plant by hand or use sprinkler irrigation. Drip irrigation, sometimes called micro-irrigation, applies water at a slow rate directly to the root zone of plants by using tubing and regulated emitters, minimizing the amount of water wasted through evaporation and runoff. One aspect of setting up a drip-irrigation system or adjusting an existing system involves installing 1/4-inch diameter or similarly sized distribution or "spaghetti" tubing branching to individual plants from 1/2-inch or other large-diameter tubing.

Thick work gloves
Tubing hole punch
Distribution tubing or emitters

Instructions

- 1
  Hold the large tubing into which you will punch holes, grasping it firmly in one hand or holding it securely against the ground. Determining where holes should go in the tubing is simple when it is laid in place where it will be used and distribution tubing or emitters are set about where they will be inserted into the large tubing.
- 2
  Position a tubing hole punch against the large tubing where you want to create a hole, such as where you want to place distribution tubing or an emitter, or near a plant.
- 3
  Hold onto the large tubing securely near where you want to punch the hole to help it maintain the tubing's shape and to avoid punching a hole completely through both sides of the large tubing. Push the tubing hole punch down or squeeze it, depending on the type of hole punch you use, until the point of the hole punch completely penetrates one side of the large tubing.
- 4
  Repeat the hole punching procedure in the large tubing to create a hole near each plant or every spot where you want to put distribution tubing or an emitter.
- 5
  Push distribution tubing or an emitter into each applicable hole in the tubing.

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