Greenhouses, Sheds and Sun Rooms - outdoor plumbing - Vanda house

I have built a Vanda(orchid species)to house my hanging vandas, I set up sprinklers to water them overhead.
At the water source, I put a anti - siphon valve. The water goes up fine, but coming down it overflows. Is there some way to prevent it from running (wasting) on the ground?

Get rid of the sprinkler heads and go to a drip irrigation system.

Can't go to drip - need the spray!!:(

How large of an area does each of the heads need to cover? If you look in the drip section of either of the big box stores (or at a local hardware store), you'll find spray emmiters that attach to the 1/4" tubing in a drip system.

Regular spray heads (like you would use in a lawn) are designed to cover about a 5' to 8' radius. The drip spray emmitters only cover a foot or so.

I have lawn sprayers, some 1/4 area others full and 1/2. The structure is somewhat 8" x 10".

Draining the water out of the hose is what an anti-siphon spigot is supposed to do, so it is doing it's job. If you don't want the anti-siphon spigot to drain the water out you can replace the spigot with a non anti-siphon model or put a valve at the end of your hose next to the spigot and close the valve when you turn off the spigot. You can try to find a check valve (don't know where you would find one) that would work in place of adding a valve in your hose to prevent the water in the hose from flowing backwards to the spigot.

Pilot Dane,

You and I have interpreted chuckgunn's problem differently, and after rereading his initial post, I'm not sure which of us is on the right track.


If the problem is overspray while the system is running, like I think it is, then the possible solutions would include going to different heads, adjusting the flow rate at the valve (I'm assuming that he's using an anti-siphon sprinkler valve) or installing a pressure regulator at the outlet of the valve to reduce the size of the spray. It may take some combination of those ideas to confine the spray to where it is wanted.

Now, if the problem is dripping after the system is turned off, which I think is what you are talking about, that would require a different solution. Changing to a non anti-siphon valve may work. Or chuckgunn may need to install a drain valve in the lowest part of the system. There are automatic versions of those which are designed to be installed in the lowest spot of the system that are spring loaded and pressure controlled. The spring holds them open all the time, and the water pressure closes them as soon as the system is turned on. The only drip you would have then would be right under the drain valve, and a catch pan would cure that.