ASFA Drip Planner
Tell us what you are watering, where, and with which of our driplines or emitters. The planner says how long to water each day in the dry season and in the rains, whether your rows are within the maker's longest row, how many zones your water supply needs, and what to buy.
- February, the thirstiest month
- 3 h 12 min
- August, in the rains
- none rain enough
- Water for all of it at once
- 1.25 m³/h
- Zones, watered in turn
- 1
Watering time each day, all zones the same. How these are worked out
- Layout. 10 driplines of 50 m, 1 m apart: 500 m² of beds. The UniRam AS 16 mm line gives 1.0 l/h every 40 cm: 2.5 mm of water an hour over the bed.
- Water. In Abuja, February needs the most water: 6.5 mm a day for tomato at full growth, after the rain. With 81% of it reaching the roots, the system gives 8.0 mm a day: 3 h 12 min each day. In August an average year's rain covers it.
- Row length. Rows of 50 m are within the 222 m that Netafim gives for this line at 3.0 bar where it starts.
- Zones. All 10 driplines together take 1.25 m³/h, within the 2 m³/h you have: one zone. 3 h 12 min of pumping each day in February.
Month by month in AbujaWatering time each day, in an average year.
| Month | ETo, mm a day | Rain, mm in the month | Watering time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 5.6 | 2 | 3 h 10 min |
| Feb (the thirstiest month) | 5.8 | 6 | 3 h 12 min |
| Mar | 5.8 | 15 | 3 h 2 min |
| Apr | 5.3 | 86 | 1 h 48 min |
| May | 4.5 | 132 | 54 min |
| Jun | 3.9 | 147 | 22 min |
| Jul | 3.5 | 202 | none |
| Aug | 3.1 | 253 | none |
| Sep | 3.5 | 214 | none |
| Oct | 3.9 | 117 | 43 min |
| Nov | 4.5 | 9 | 2 h 25 min |
| Dec | 5.0 | 1 | 2 h 51 min |
ETo: how much water a reference grass would use. Climate: NASA POWER climatology, AG community, January 2001 to December 2025, modelled for the city, not a weather station.
What you would need from the store
- 1 rollNetafim UniRam AS dripline, 13720-000600 (16 mm, 1.0 l/h every 40 cm, 500 m roll). 500 m of dripline in 500 m rolls.
- 1 filterOur advice: one at the head of the system, 130 microns (120 mesh) or finer, the filtering Netafim prints for this line. See filters in the store.
Quantities, not prices: the pipe that feeds the rows, valves and the pump are worked out with your quote. The store shows no prices; we confirm price and stock when you order.
A planning guide, not a design. The flows, pressures and longest rows are the makers' printed figures for the products we sell; the climate is a modelled average year for the city. Your soil, slope, water quality and pipework change the answer, and we check them before we quote. Section 02 below lists what is left out. Trademarks belong to their owners; no partnership is implied.
01 / How the planner works
- How dry the month is (ETo)
- The water a reference grass would use each day, worked out month by month from the city's temperature, humidity, wind and sunshine with FAO's Penman-Monteith method.Climate: NASA POWER climatology, AG community, January 2001 to December 2025. FAO-56 ↗
- The plants' factor
- Plants use a share of ETo: tomatoes at full growth 1.15 of it, mature citrus 0.65, a hedge of moderate water need 0.5. Vegetables and fruit trees take FAO's crop factors; hedges and shrubs the landscape coefficient method's species classes, at their middle values.FAO crop factors ↗ · WUCOLS ↗
- Rain
- The month's rain counts in part: the share that soaks in and stays, by the USDA method FAO uses in CROPWAT. In the rains it often covers the plants' need.FAO CROPWAT ↗
- Watering time
- What the plants need, divided by 0.81 because not every drop reaches the roots, then divided by how fast the drip puts water on the ground. Watering fewer days a week puts the week's water on those days.0.81 is the drip figure in California's water-efficient landscape rules ↗, inside the 80–90% for drip on our drip irrigation page (USDA-NRCS, National Engineering Handbook Part 652, p. 6-59).
- The longest row
- Water loses pressure along a dripline, so each line has a longest row. The planner shows only the length the maker prints for that line, at a pressure they print, and never one in between. A row that is too long can be fed from its middle, or split.From Hunter Product Catalogue Vol. 41 (EMEA, metric), p. 172; Netafim France, UNIRAM technical sheet (fiche technique), p. 2.
- Zones
- When the rows together need more water than your pump or borehole gives, they water in groups, one after another. The planner adds up the time so you can see if it fits in your pumping day.
02 / What the planner leaves out
- Your soilHow far water spreads from each emitter, and how much the soil holds between waterings. Sandy soil may need closer emitters or shorter, more frequent watering.
- SlopesNetafim prints its row lengths for flat ground, and Hunter's table states no slope. On a slope we work the rows and the feed pipes out with you, and the planner does not guess.
- DripNet PC row lengthsWe do not hold Netafim's row-length table for DripNet PC, so for that line the planner leaves the longest row to your quote.
- Pipes, valves and the pumpThe pipe that feeds the rows, the valve for each zone, pressure regulators and the pump are sized with your quote.
- Young plants and nurseriesSeedlings and newly planted trees need less water but more often while their roots grow. Nursery beds and bags are planned with you.
- An average yearA dry spell in the rains, a hot week or a late start to the season needs more water than the average month shown. The rain is spread evenly over its month, as the method does, so a month with a few heavy storms counts for more than it gives. Where a city's modelled climate has a known weakness, the planner says so beside its figures.
Want to space sprinklers instead? Try the ASFA Coverage Check. Ready to go further? Request a quote.