Drip tape or dripline: which suits your crop?
Both carry water along the row and let it out through drippers built into the line. Drip tape has a thin wall and is usually laid for one season; dripline has a thicker, round wall and can be lifted and laid again. This guide compares them from makers' sheets on the wall, the dripper spacing, the working pressure and the filter each needs, and shows how to count what each costs over the seasons it lasts, so you can choose for your crop, your water and your plot.
Written for farmers, greenhouse and nursery growers and homeowners.
Tape and dripline, side by side
Drip tape is a thin-walled line with its drippers built into the wall as it is made. It lies flat when it is empty and rounds out when the water is on. Penn State describes the usual vegetable tape as 0.20 to 0.25 mm thick and generally used for only one season. FAO gives drip tape walls from 0.10 to 1.25 mm, in sizes from 12 to 20 mm across.
Dripline has a thicker wall that keeps its round shape, with a separate plastic dripper fixed inside it at each outlet. USDA describes drip tubing as layflat, flexible, or semirigid tubing that keeps its shape; dripline is the kind that keeps its shape. Penn State notes that lines with drippers fixed inside cost more, but often water more evenly and resist clogging better.
The boundary is not sharp: some makers call their single-season line a thin-wall dripline. What matters is the wall, how many seasons the line is made for, and the dripper inside it.
- Drip tape when it is empty: its thin wall lies flat
- The same tape with the water on: it rounds out
- Dripline: a thicker wall that stays round, with a dripper fixed inside
- A dripper inside the line, letting water out through a hole in the wall
- The dripper spacing: the distance from one dripper to the next, the same all along the line
- The wet soil under each outlet; closer drippers make the patches join into a strip
Sources: Penn State Extension (2016), Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production; USDA-NRCS (1997), National Engineering Handbook Part 652: Irrigation Guide, chapter 6; FAO (2007), Handbook on Pressurized Irrigation Techniques: chapter 14, drip irrigation; Netafim (2024), Streamline X product sheet.
Comparison from makers' sheets
Pressure is how hard the water pushes inside the pipe, measured in bar; given as a height of water, one bar is about 10 metres of head. Flow is how much water passes in a set time, in litres per hour (L/h) for a dripper, or cubic metres per hour (m³/h) for a pump or a pipe. One cubic metre is 1,000 litres. A pressure-compensating dripper gives the same flow across a range of pressures.
The table compares three 16 mm lines from one maker's sheets, so every column is measured the same way. On the Streamline X and DripNet PC AS sheets the highest working pressure rises with the wall thickness; the HWD sheet gives each of its walls 2.5, 3.0 or 3.5 bar, and says the dripper or the wall sets which. The thin-wall line is not pressure-compensating: its dripper flow is given at 1.0 bar and rises and falls with the pressure. The other two hold their flow over a range, from 0.4 to 3.0 bar for the 1.0 L/h dripper, but never above the line's own highest working pressure.
| 16 mm sizes | Streamline X, one season | DripNet PC AS, semi-permanent | DripNet PC HWD, permanent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall | 0.13 to 0.25 mm | 0.31 to 0.80 mm | 0.90 to 1.20 mm |
| Highest working pressure | 0.8 to 1.4 bar | 1.8 to 3.0 bar | 2.5 to 3.5 bar |
| Dripper flow | 0.35 to 2.80 L/h | 0.60 to 3.80 L/h | 0.4 to 3.8 L/h |
| Holds its flow as pressure changes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dripper spacing | 0.15 to 1.00 m | 0.15 to 1.00 m | 0.15 to 1.00 m |
| Coil length | 1,800 to 3,600 m | 450 to 1,300 m | 400 to 500 m |
| Also | Ribbed outside, for laying and lifting | Anti-siphon, for buried lines | Drains after watering, for recoiling |
| Made for | Single-season crops | Field crops on uneven ground | Permanent crops on uneven ground |
Sources: Netafim (2024), Streamline X product sheet; Netafim (2024), DripNet PC AS TWD and MWD product sheet; Netafim (2020), DripNet PC HWD product sheet; Penn State Extension (2016), Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production; FAO (2007), Handbook on Pressurized Irrigation Techniques: annex, units conversion table.
Dripper spacing
On most vegetables, FAO sets one dripper per plant and one line per row, with the dripper spacing the same as the plant spacing. Tape has several outlets per plant instead, so that it wets a continuous strip along the row.
Penn State finds spacings of about 20 to 40 cm common on vegetables, with closer spacing on very sandy soils. Closer spacing means more drippers and more flow in each line, and so a larger pump and larger pipes. USDA gives about 30 to 90 cm as typical for drip lines, under about 30 cm in sandy soils and under about 60 cm in medium soils, because in sandy soil the wet strip is no wider than about half its depth.
Watering sandy, loamy and clay soils
Sources: FAO (2007), Handbook on Pressurized Irrigation Techniques: chapter 14, drip irrigation; Penn State Extension (2016), Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production; USDA-NRCS (1997), National Engineering Handbook Part 652: Irrigation Guide, chapter 6.
Wall thickness and working pressure
Penn State runs drip tape at about 0.4 to 1.0 bar and warns that it may deform or burst at about 2 bar. A pressure regulator brings the pressure in the pipe that feeds the lines down to their working pressure, so a tape system fed at more than the tape's working pressure needs a regulator that works.
A thicker wall takes more pressure, more handling and more seasons, as the table shows. Penn State advises choosing the wall by your experience, the number of seasons the line must last, and the risk of damage from insects, animals and machinery. It suggests 0.25 mm tape for a first season, because thinner tape stretches and breaks more easily while you learn to lay it.
On a slope or a long row, the pressure changes along the line. A dripper that is not pressure-compensating gives more water where the pressure is higher: Penn State notes that many lines give about 10 percent more flow for 20 percent more pressure. A pressure-compensating line keeps the flow steady across its working range, which is why makers offer it for uneven ground.
Sources: Penn State Extension (2016), Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production; Netafim (2024), Streamline X product sheet; Netafim (2024), DripNet PC AS TWD and MWD product sheet.
The filter each line needs
Both need clean water: the water passages in these drippers are about a millimetre across or less. A filter's fineness is given in microns, the size of its openings in thousandths of a millimetre, or in mesh, a number that rises as the openings get smaller. Penn State calls for 150 to 200 mesh on most drip tapes and 100 mesh on clog-resistant lines with drippers fixed inside.
Follow the figure on your line's own sheet. The three lines in the table ask for 130 microns (120 mesh), or 200 microns (80 mesh) for their larger drippers, and their maker asks for a sand separator before the main filter wherever the water carries more than 2 parts per million of sand.
Choosing a drip irrigation filter
Sources: Penn State Extension (2016), Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production; USDA-NRCS (1997), National Engineering Handbook Part 652: Irrigation Guide, chapter 6; Netafim (2024), Streamline X product sheet; Netafim (2024), DripNet PC AS TWD and MWD product sheet; Netafim (2020), DripNet PC HWD product sheet.
Reuse, lifting and storage
Penn State notes that drip tubes can be reused but that commercial vegetable growers rarely do, and that reusing tape is ecologically sound but costly to lift, store and repair. A line meant to last several seasons still has to come through each one: lines on the surface are open to damage from birds, animals, insects, tractors and feet, and USDA notes that rodents can damage plastic pipe under 100 mm across laid on or near the surface.
To use a line again, flush it, roll it into coils and keep it in a dry, clean place away from rodents. FAO's end-of-season list includes flushing all the lines and rolling portable tubes into coils, and it keeps drippers away from fertilisers, chemicals and oil. One permanent dripline in the table drains itself after each watering, which its maker says makes recoiling easier at the end of the crop.
Irrigation maintenance through the season
Sources: Penn State Extension (2016), Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production; USDA-NRCS (1997), National Engineering Handbook Part 652: Irrigation Guide, chapter 6; FAO (2007), Handbook on Pressurized Irrigation Techniques: chapter 20, operation and maintenance; Netafim (2020), DripNet PC HWD product sheet.
Counting the replacement cost
Tape costs less to buy each season, and Penn State notes that thinner tape costs less than thicker; dripline costs more at the start but can last several seasons. Compare the two over the same number of seasons, with your own quotes, in this order.
- Measure the line one season needs: the number of rows or beds times their length.
- Ask each supplier how many seasons their line is expected to last on a site like yours, and what its warranty covers.
- Choose a period to compare, such as four seasons, and work out how much of each line you would buy over it.
- Turn the lengths into coils, using the coil length on the sheet, and price them from written quotes.
- Add the labour to lay and lift the lines each season, and to repair and store a line you keep.
- Add what changes with the choice: new connectors, a regulator, a finer filter, and getting rid of spent tape.
- Compare the totals for the whole period, not the price of one coil.
Sources: Penn State Extension (2016), Drip Irrigation for Vegetable Production; Netafim (2024), Streamline X product sheet.
What to measure
- The length of each row or bed, and how many there are
- How far apart the plants are along the row, and the rows across the plot
- Your soil: sandy, loamy or clay
- The slope along the rows, and any high or low points
- The flow and pressure your water source gives at the plot
- What your water carries, from a water test: sand, silt, iron or algae
- How many seasons you will grow on the same beds, and where you could store lines between them
What to compare on the spec sheet
| On the sheet | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Wall thickness | How many seasons the line is made for, and how much handling it takes |
| Highest working pressure | The pressure where the water enters the line must stay below it |
| Dripper flow, and the pressure it is given at | Sets how long you water, and how much flow each zone needs |
| Pressure-compensating or not | Decides whether the flow stays even on slopes and long rows |
| Dripper spacing | Must suit your plant spacing and your soil |
| Filtration asked for, in microns or mesh | Tells you the filter to fit before the lines |
| Longest line for your spacing and slope | Beyond it, the far end of the line gets less water |
| Variation between drippers | FAO lists it among what a supplier should state, as a sign of how evenly the drippers are made |
| Coil length | Tells you how many coils to buy |
Netafim DripNet PC dripline, for vegetable rows and field cropsNetafim UniRam AS dripline, thick-walled, for orchards and field cropsHunter HDL-PC dripline, for hedges, beds and trees
Source: FAO (2007), Handbook on Pressurized Irrigation Techniques: chapter 14, drip irrigation.
When to ask for site-specific sizing
Ask for a design worked out for your plot if any of these apply. It sizes the line, the dripper flow and spacing, the zones, the regulator and the filter together, from your own measurements, so that the far end of each line gets close to the same water as the start.
- Rows longer than the longest line the maker gives for your spacing and slope
- Sloping or uneven ground, or lines that will be buried
- More than one zone from one pump, or a source that gives little water
- Water that carries sand, silt, iron or algae
- Several crops with different spacing on one system
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