The Pitcher Drip Irrigation Controller allows you to automatically irrigate your garden with gravity feed or pressurised irrgation. The irrigation control is based on plant demand, and so it is more water-efficient than any other controller. The Pitcher Drip Irrigation Controller includes a clay pot or pitcher. Provided that all the plants in irrigation zone have the same irrigation requirement, you can install Pitcher Drip Irrigation as follows:
 
Select a typical dripper and replace it with a subsurface clay pot.
Connect the clay pot to the controller
Connect the water supply for the zone to the inlet of the controller
Connect a dripper inside the controller.
Connect the irrigation zone to the outlet of the controller.
Turn on the water supply and all the plants will be watered automatically without power.
 
Key features:
All plants in the zone should have the same irrigation requirements
All plants in the zone are irrigated by the same number of drippers
Unpowered (no batteries, no solar panels, no electronics, no computers, and no WiFi)
Use for subsurface or surface drip irrigation
Use pressure compensating (PC) drippers or non pressure compensating (NPC) drippers
The water supply pressure should be at least 5 kPa
The valve in the controller is 1/2 inch
Provided the water supply pressure is at least 10 kPa, you can deliver water by gravity feed to at least 400 2 L/H drippers (2 L/H @ 100 kPa) on level ground
The water usage is controlled by the demand from the plants
The discharge from each dripper during an irrigation event is the same as the average on-demand discharge from the subsurface clay pot (or pots) since the previous irrigation event
As the water needed by your plants changes as the plants grow, the water usage rate adjusts automatically
The water usage rate increases significantly during a heat wave
Water in the controller is protected from debris, algae, mosquitoes and thirsty animals
Provided the water supply is continuous, you can leave your irrigation application unattended for months on end
A tap timer may be used so that irrigation is only available between sunset and sunrise