ML Irrigation / Products / Hand Watering Tools
Water breakers, wands, valves, watering cans and hose-end tools built for daily commercial use.
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Hand watering still finishes a lot of greenhouse crops, rescues the dry corner of a bench and starts the plugs and cuttings that automated lines cannot touch. The tool on the end of the hose decides whether that work is fast and gentle or slow and destructive.
This page carries the Dramm hand-watering line: Water Breaker nozzles from full-flow to ultra-fine, quarter-turn and thumb-control valves, Handi-Reach and hanging basket handles, in-line hose filters, watering cans and capillary matting. ML Irrigation supplies it wholesale from Fountain Inn, South Carolina, to production nurseries, greenhouses and horticulture education programs in all 50 states. The guidance below matches breaker, valve and handle to your crop and your water.
Established containers and woody nursery stock take the 400 series: 11.1 gpm at 40 PSI, a full-flow shower that fills a pot without damaging plants or disturbing the media. The 400AL is cast aluminum; the 400PL is the same pattern in ABS plastic and aluminum for a lighter tool, and the 400PL with Protective Ring adds a black ring that absorbs and transfers blows around the disk.
Where pressure is low, the system restricts total volume, or you are feeding through a fertilizer siphon, step down to the 170 series at 7 gpm. It is also the breaker Dramm pairs with the hanging basket handles, because a basket only takes so much water at once.
Plugs, seedlings, fresh cuttings and soft germination mixes want a fine breaker. The 480 uses a stainless steel disk with micro-fine holes, focused in the plastic version and wider in the aluminum. The 750PL and the 1000PL Redhead run 750 and over 1,000 micro-holes at 8 gpm for a shower that leaves the surface undisturbed. The brass Seedling Nozzle drops to a half gallon per minute hollow-cone mist for the most fragile material, and the Screen-Aire aerates the stream into a soft, concentrated 18 gpm flow for nursery containers.
For speed across bedding plants and market packs, the 4-inch Brass Rose puts out 18 to 20 gpm in an extra-wide pattern, and the Plastic Fan Nozzle gives a rectangular 5 to 7 gpm pattern sized for flats and plug trays.
Breaker and nozzle flow figures on this page are rated at 40 PSI, so check pressure at the far end of the house with the other hoses running. A long hose and three people watering at once can leave a 400 behaving like a 170. If pressure is marginal, the 170 series is built for it, and the twin valves let you split a hose bib with each outlet controlled independently.
Match the valve to the breaker. The thumb-control One Touch Valve passes 8 gpm, fine for a 170 or a micro-hole breaker but a bottleneck ahead of a 400 or a Brass Rose. The OneTouch HighFlow, HighFlow and Twin HighFlow pass 16 gpm per outlet, the 300 Brass and 300AL quarter-turn valves 17 gpm, the glass-filled polypropylene 74 valve 18 gpm. The Touch N' Flow Pro is the trigger option at 11 gpm max.
The 1000PL and the Screen-Aire have holes fine enough that pond, well or recycled water will plug them, so put the ILF-175 In-Line Hose Filter, with its 175-micron (80-mesh) stainless steel screen, between the valve and the nozzle. Dramm notes that the aluminum 300AL can corrode depending on water quality and other fittings; on questionable water, brass is the safer spend. Whole-house treatment lives under Filtration.
Size the handle to the bench: Handi-Reach Handles run 16 to 72 inches, and the Hanging Basket Handles add a 90-degree curve at 36 or 48 inches so the water lands in the basket.
The mistakes we see most often are cheap ones. A crew waters plugs with a 400 because it was already on the hose, and half the tray washes to one side. A fine breaker goes on unfiltered water and is plugged by the second day. An 8 gpm thumb valve sits ahead of an 18 gpm rose and the grower blames the pressure. Breakers get dropped and knocked, which is what the protective ring on the 400PL is there to absorb. Handles are too short, and by August the watering crew has a back problem.
Each of those has an answer in the line. The breakers, valves and handles that list a thread size use 3/4-inch hose threads, so valve, handle and breaker assemble in any order. The 400 and 170 come in cast aluminum or in ABS as the lighter alternative. The valve families split by how you control the water: a quarter-turn valve for a hose that stays on all morning, thumb-tip OneTouch control for constant stop-and-go, a trigger where operators prefer it, a twin where one bib feeds two hoses. Watering cans run 2 through 10 liters, the 5-liter with a brass rose for applying fertilizer to foliage.
Capillary matting rounds the page out for benches you would rather sub-irrigate: Floraplus 2 holds 1 L/m2, Vivaplus 2 holds 3 L/m2, both in 48, 72 and 96-inch rolls, with white Aquafol Filter Cloth alongside. Tell us the crop and the water when you request a quote.
DrammNeed pricing or a spec on these Dramm products? Call (864) 862-5000 or request a quote.
Flow. The 400 series delivers 11.1 gpm at 40 PSI for fast, full-flow watering of established containers. The 170 series delivers 7 gpm at the same pressure and is the breaker for low-pressure lines, systems that restrict total volume, small containers such as hanging baskets, and hose-end fertilizer siphons. Both come in cast aluminum (AL) or ABS plastic (PL) with 3/4-inch hose threads.
Dramm highly recommends the In-Line Hose Filter for the 1000PL Redhead and the Screen-Aire, and the filter fits any Dramm hose nozzle, so the 480 and 750PL can run behind one on anything but clean water. The ILF-175 carries a 175-micron (80-mesh) stainless steel screen that stops the dirt and debris that plug micro-holes, and it threads in ahead of the nozzle.
Match the valve's flow to the nozzle. The 300 Brass Shut-Off Valve passes 17 gpm and is built for years of service; the raised-handle version clears obstructions such as a brass Twisty Quick, and the 300AL is the same valve in lighter aluminum. The glass-filled polypropylene 74 passes 18 gpm. For constant start-stop watering, OneTouch thumb control comes in 8 gpm and 16 gpm HighFlow versions, and the Touch N' Flow Pro trigger tops out at 11 gpm.
ML Irrigation is a wholesale supplier. We sell Dramm watering tools, and the rest of the irrigation line, to production nurseries, greenhouse operations and horticulture education programs, and we ship to growers in all 50 states from Fountain Inn, South Carolina. If you water for a living, or teach people who will, request a quote and tell us how many hoses you run.
Long enough that the operator stands upright at the far edge of the bench. Handi-Reach Handles come in 16, 24, 30, 36, 48, 60 and 72-inch lengths in extruded aluminum with forged brass couplings; the Handi-Reach Color Handles run 16, 24 and 30 inches. For baskets and window boxes, the 36 and 48-inch Hanging Basket Handles put a 90-degree curve at the top and pair with a 170 series breaker.
Need pricing on any of these hand watering tools? Send the model and quantity, or just describe the block, and we'll come back with wholesale pricing within one business day. Everything on this page is sold to production nurseries, greenhouses and education programs.
Hose, PVC & Fittings · Filtration · Fertilizer Injectors · Hanging Basket Assemblies · Spray & Fogging Equipment · Accessories & Spare Parts
