The evolution of drip tape materials, drip tape emitter pathways, and hardware to connect, install, and remove/retrieve drip tape has been nothing short of phenomenal since the early drip tape days of the 1970’s. Drip tape has been successfully used on millions of acres of cropland, often with exceptional savings in water and improvements in crop quality and yields.
A major advantage of using tape materials, as compared to harder wall hose and emitters, is a low price per foot. But this tremendous advantage brings with it a higher sensitivity to physical damage. Precautions must also be taken to minimize problems with plugging the relatively small flow passageways of the emitters. This is not to say that problems will unavoidably occur with drip tape – but problems have occurred and they are often misunderstood or misdiagnosed.
