Soaker hoses are a good idea, but you REALLY need to mulch that bed or you'll waste water and your plants won't thrive. Water evaporates quickly from bare earth, and optimal deep watering is very difficult because you're fighting evaporation.

what i did was run teh soakers along each row, then covered with newspaper and dirt. they soak down deep, running for 2 hours every other day or so. they do not water far to either side, and that is why i use them, it keeps the weed down in between rows.

BTW, at last count i have 800 ft of soaker hose run thru my garden, with some areas using sprinkler hoses for now.

I love soaker hoses, but it is critical, in my opinion, to understand the water fans out the deeper into the soil it goes. At the surface only a couple/few inches to each side of the hose gets wet.

For established plants this can work fine, but for sowing shallow seeds not so well unless the hoses are run such that the seeds can be sown within the moistened area.

A mulch over the soakers does help a lot. It limits water loss to evaporation, but it also tends to even out the moisture from the hoses. The water still drips down in a conical pattern, but when it tries to evaporate and the mulch keeps it in it seems to result in the entire surface under the mulch staying moist.

If your hoses are leaking a lot more at the ends, it sounds like you don't have them connected well.

1) Make sure that the loose, round rubber insert is in place on the female side of the connector.
2) Teflon tape can help seal connections better.
3) Use pliers to get a tight fit. Just don't overtighten, or you could damage the connector.

I use buried dripper houses in my garden and elevated dripper hoses in my greenhouse. With buried hoses, you need to water for even longer (most of the day) -- just less often. Water will migrate laterally, but it takes time. If it's all evaporating before it can migrate, then yes, your plants in the middle will get less water. Definitely mulch.

Yes, plants generally know to grow their roots toward water, and will sometimes do impressive feats to get to it. This little tree, the last survivor of an ancient forest in the middle of the Sahara:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbre_du_Téré

Was found to have roots that reached down at least a hundred feet to get to the water table.

As for elevated dripper hoses, I'm not too happy with them. They never drip evenly enough for my plants, and leave lots of "deserts". My next greenhouse watering system will probably be an ebb and flow system.

Will those snap pea roots reach out underground to find the water?

They will if you don't water every day.

So are those toms' roots getting water? Do those roots have a genetic code that says "i must grow 10 inches west because that's where the water is?"...I might have to spot water if those roots dont reach out...

Isn't it amazing that all those plants in nature ever survived without humans coming by with a watering can? Roots respond to their environment. If they get a little water every day, they stay near the surface. If they get a lot of water every few days, they go down deep to survive drought.

For some reason both ends of the soakers are spitting water strongly but the stretch in the middle beds is slowly dribbling.

The stretch in the middle is losing water pressure. Secure the leaks. You will almost always loose pressure the longer the hose is. Browse the Irrigation Forum for more info.

I thought soakers were fool proof so this is a heck of an experience in a 37x35 foot garden.

Not necessarily "fool proof". There are good hoses and bad hoses.

Mulch. Mulch. Mulch. Two inches worth of anything you can get your hands on. You and your plants will be happier.

i made a mistake in the footage of the soakers listed. i actually have 240 feet snaking through the beds, not 25 as listed in my first post. sorry for the mistake.

....Oh and the soaker hose in the middle beds is actually from Home Depot. It was $3 less than the rest of them which I bought at Sears. That is the middle beds in the photo, with the snap peas. I am going to swap out that one from Home Depot and put in one from Sears. Then they will be all uniform quality. I happen to have an extra one from Sears. I'll see if that makes a difference in the pressure of the middle beds. We'll also check the connections but I think they're fine. I have 2 bales of straw that I must put around the plants and in the walking paths. The reason I hadnt put it down yet was because I wouldnt be able to see the dry spots once covered....I also have grass clippings to spread around too.

I'm not sure how to secure the leaks when the whole hose is designed to "leak." There is no leaking at any of the connections.

I'm glad the roots know to go in the direction of the water....I am really starting to like these soakers. I'm so glad we decided to put them in.

Violet, you're in Z6 as well. When are we going to get more rain? It looks like we're headed into a very dry season here. During my walk this morning, you could already see the lawns showing tendencies toward brown in some spots.

I've been using soaker hoses for a good many years and I like them as long as they are working properly. The water in my area has a lot of lime in it so after a while the pores get all stopped up and you have to replace them. One of these days I will bite the bullet and go to a drip system. Once I realize that the hoses have limed up and will have to be dicarded the following year I go around with a saftety pin and poke holes in the hose around where my plants are and use it as a little make shift drip system.

Mulch, mulch, mulch! That and the soaker hoses will definitely conserve water-and run your pump less often. I agree with snappybob, though, with the size of your area to be watered, replacing those hoses every 2-3 years is expensive. A permanent drip system would be easy since it's a straight shot for you. (we have 200+' of soakers, but it in 5 differently placed raised beds)Mulch!
b

marial1214 Z,

Where you purchase a product and how much you pay for it is not as important as how well it is made. You can find high quality products at "lesser" stores if you know what you're looking for (and I personally do not like Sears).

That's why I run them for so long, to make sure the middle beds get enough dribbles.

Don't drown the rest of your garden for the sake of "the middle" area that isn't getting as much water. Consider using one soaker hose in that area directly connected to the main hose for that area. You will almost always have less pressure in the middle or end of the hose depending on the hose and the setup.

Violet, you're in Z6 as well. When are we going to get more rain?

Impossible to answer. Especially with entire "usda zones" which have nothing to do with rainfall. And when rainfall can be totally different within 15 miles of your own city much less another part of the country.

The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map factors in average winter minimum temperatures. This collection of information starts with Zone 1, where minimum temperatures can go down to MINUS 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and ranges to Zone 11, for the lucky gardeners in Hawaii and extreme Southern Florida where lows don't drop below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
The data on which the USDA map is based was gathered over a period of 60 years.

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A hardiness zone is a geographically-defined zone in which a specific category of plant life is capable of growing, as defined by temperature hardiness, or ability to withstand the minimum temperatures of the zone. (In a nutshell, a plant's tolerance to cold temps.) The zones were first developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and have subsequently been adopted elsewhere. They are categorized according to the mean of the lowest temperature recorded each winter, termed the "average annual minimum temperature". Thus if five successive winters reach respective minima of −14 °C, −12 °C, −8 °C, −16 °C, and −13 °C, the mean coldest temperature is −12.6 °C, placing the site in zone 7.

Temperature scale of hardiness zones, showing the average annual minimum temperature boundaries for the zones:
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The hardiness zones are effective in that, for many situations, extremes of winter cold are a major determining factor in whether a plant species can be cultivated outdoors at a particular location. However, it does have a number of drawbacks, most significantly in not incorporating summer heat levels into the zone determination. Thus sites which may have the same mean winter minima, but markedly different summer temperatures, will still be accorded the same hardiness zone.

AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS KY
LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM NV NY
OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV WY

I have perhaps 400 feet of soaker hose and it has been working fine for several years. I have 10 raised beds ranging from 4x25 feet up to 4x30 each in the main garden. Plus another 15x15 foot potato and pumpkin patch in the back orchard.

Mine is run on a 2 zone battery operated hose time I got from Home Depot that runs on 4 AA batteries. The system is completely automatic. You can set each zone to water at differnt intervals and for different durations of watering.

I agree that when germinating from seeds some supplemental watering from the garden hose is good until they get established. When transplanting seedlings however the soaker hose is all I need.

Some of mine are buried an inch or two beneath the surface when it is for leaf crops that are planted everywhere all over the beds, not in rows. for the tomatoes and pole beans that are in rows I keep the hoses at the surface. The leaf crop beds I run 3 lengths of hose per bed, and the row crops (2 rows of tomato per bed) I run 2 lengths of hose very close to the plants themselves.

It is also true that the water spreads out under the surface -- and it is also true you cannot tell from looking at the soil surface which may look very dry, that the plants are getting watered. So looks are deceiving. When you dig into the soil however it is moist. However, the water is localized to where the plants are, that is how you conserve up to 90% of the water.

Maybe my philosphy of watering is different than most peoples about deep watering once every few days and making the plants root for water. I take the opposite approach. My system waters for 15 minutes every 4 hours. The soil level is uniform and my plants do not get heat stressed or water stressed because it doesn't dry out.

You can't give a hard and fast rule about how long you need to water them because it has to do with both the water pressure and how much length of hose you are running. But 4 times daily for 15 minutes each works fine in my garden. If it gets really hot I can adjust the length of time and if it rains like it did for more than a week last week, I just turn off the system.

Other than that it is zero maintainence just set it and forget it.

Here are a few photos of the buried and exposed hose you can see the outline of where it waters.

[Click on the thumnail pictures for the big picture.]

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"Mulch, mulch, mulch"

That's good advice - but wait until July - otherwise the mulch will keep the soil cool even in hot weather..

Moulman:

Of course, it depends on what you mulch with. If you mulch with green grass clippings (don't let them get too close to your plants!), they'll generate heat as they decompose. Decomposing grass clippings are hot and sticky.

If I don't get an inch of rain I run the soaker in my beds for 2 hours, one time a week. I already have a 4" layer of pecan shell mulchh and my plants are fruiting.

Soaker or drip systems and mulching are definately a superior method of watering.

after seeing gonefishings set up, I went out and bought soaker hoses for all my beds...I love them...a couple of times for one reason or another I have clipped them and then I just use them as sprayer hoses...I have mine in one bed that I actually pricked with a sharp point purposely...Love the way it sprays ...

For Seedlings or transplants as shown above - their root structure is not yet very substantial and are now near the stem of the plant but as the plant grows, the roots will grow out as much as 4ft around (8ft dia.) a tomato plant for example. The roots take up water & nutrients near the tips of the root system. Meaning continued watering at/near the stem is of little value.

When I used soaker hoses I did it two different ways. I made a circle of about 6-8ft dia. around each tomato, overlapping in some spots to continue on to the next. Alternately, I took two different hoses and made an "S" pattern down the rows, crisscrossing between each plant. Beginning with a hose on the left, then a hose beginning on the right. Each plant was completely circled by the two hoses. This made it easier to adjust or move the hoses out as the plants grew.

I think the manufacturer's recommendation I recall reading was not to extend beyond 100ft of soaker hose. As the length of the soaker hose increases the pressure to the far end of the hose is reduced and not as effective. Remember the hose is designed to seep or leak water reducing flow and pressure to the far end. I just used another (separate) rubber hose to another soaker and started all over again.

Did anyone mention mulch? Mulch will definitely help reduce moisture loss. I think my soil is warm enough to mulch now. If you bury your hose - not only mark it but remember it is there esp. if you use a tiller.

Why your hoses would leak at the beginning and end but not as much in the middle? The only thing that would make sense is a leak? Loose connection or rip/tear. Water indeed does follow the path of least resistance. The hose requires a pressure buildup for water to seep thru the porous rubber.

Meanwhile, spot watering may be the best way.

Good Luck,
Gumby_CT - who has drilled (small) holes in old soakers so he could use them on rain barrels. Also old rubber hoses ;-) every 6in., go thru both sides.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gumby's Fav- ROOT DEVELOPMENT of VEGETABLE CROPS

Have to correct my earlier post, I set the timers to water every 6 hours for 15 minutes each time. So the water is on for one hour a day total.

Marial, much of your soaker hose problems can be attributed to sediment in the water. Although I have only used driptape for many years, I know that the pours in any drip system will block with particles over time, basically making the system worse than useless.

A 5 micron water filter system will help but over time things like algae and scum will block the tiny openings. Also if you have hard water never, ever try to inject a soluble phosphate fertilizer; the CaPO4 formed will block you lines in a hurry.

Bottom line-- buy the cheapest soaker hoses you can find and toss them when they perform poorly. Or invest in much cheaper driptape which is meant to be replaced each year.

I have 3 raised beds. 2 are 25x4 feet and one is 35x4 feet. I have a 50 foot soaker hose in each 25x4 and a 75ft in the 35ft. The hose loops each bed. I can sometimes get in 3 rows of veg. per bed. I run the water about 10 minutes about every 4 days for each bed separately. Longer than 10 minutes than the water starts to run out from under the bed out into the grass. I may run the water longer when it heats up and the weather is dryer. I will shift the hose more to the middle or over rows depending on what is planted and when. I think your going to have to experiment a little with your set up. We're all a little bit different in weather and garden plans.

I have experienced the same as snappybob and cmoser.

We use well water- lots of sediment and lots of minerals.

Do you have any kind of filter between the hose spigot and the beginning of the hose connection? It's a very good idea, if not a requirement, if you are using well water.

I have used many soaker hoses, different diameters, from the micro soaker tubing to the largest avilable, as well as the most and the least expensive soaker hoses available.
To go with them I have used all types of compression fittings (for those who don't know-the soaker hoses push into them tightly,giving you a way to join soaker hoses, connect to black poly feeder tubing, connect to a garden hose etc.).

On the 1/4" micro soaker tubing I have used all forms of barbed connectors, (these go into the soaker hose instead of the hose going into the compression fitting).

My first experiences with them-

I unfortunately buried at least 4 different runs of 100 feet each and at least 1- 50ft run, all just a few inches deep plus mulch, throughout a number of new perennial flower beds. They worked great for about 2 years, then less well for another, then stopped working completely.

I had added a fitting at the end of each hose run. It was a compression fitting on one side where the soaker hose went into. The other end of the fitting was (male) threaded to connect to a garden hose, or in my case a cap to screw onto and off. I used it so I could flush the system. The end of the line with this fitting stuck up out of the soil, at the end of each line. This allowed me to make sure the water was running through to the end.

Also, I bought an inexpensive pressure gauge with a garden hose connection on it. I can put it on that end fitting and measure the pressure coming out of the end, meaning also along the whole hose- very handy. By the way, if you have a well these are a great idea to stick on your hose spigot or the end of a garden hose to test the PSI pressure coming from your well. Your well water comes through a pressure tank buried near where the well was drilled. Each pressure tank has a preset pressure, ours is (I'm drawing a blank here- maybe 22 psi.?), so the water coming out at the spigot remains a steady (for example) 22 psi. When your pressure tank starts going bad (oh yes.... we've replaced an old one), the pressure can at first become eratic- the pressure gauge check helps check your pressure tank.
The end fitting is also great for flushing out loose sediment from the well water. You'd be amazed at the amount of actual crud that comes up through your well!

Unfortunately, after a few short years, the hoses stopped working- just a dribble came out. I tried to pull them up to check for leaks in the hose etc., but the groundcover and perennials and tree and vine roots had completely surrounded the hoses- (I had made some really great raised beds, the plants had grown great!)
I'd have killed everything if I'd started ripping/tearing the hoses out.
So lesson # 1 for me -don't bury soaker hoses with your perennial veggies, flowers etc.

So, I cut off all my fittings, (hard plastic so unaffected by the deposits), to disinfect and recycle onto the soakers in the newest veggie gardens- where the hoses were going just under the mulch (MULCH IS GOOD with soakers !!!!)
The entangled soaker hoses still remain in the perennial beds, still snaking around just a few inches down.

By the way, I attribute the hoses closing up to 2 things- the minerals and sediment in our well water and then the hose itself leaking after getting nicked or sliced with trowels etc. when replacing or adding bulbs & plants to the beds.

In that old veggie garden I added an inline filter, just after the hose spigot of the well, and new (better) hoses. But the same thing happened, as far as the mineral deposits in the hoses eventually making them too ineffective to use.

I did a lot of research and found there are ways to back flow/flush, or 'soak' your soakers in vinegar or hydrogen oxygen based solutions to try and remove the deposits and get those hoses soaking again, but the time and expense and just plain hassle of it all, after my first experience stopped me.

Putting in a new well necessitated, 4 years ago, our moving the entire vegetable garden. It's taken all these years now to clear the trees and then the stumps (we live in the woods) and to get everything together to grow most things in many large pots. The pots sit on recycled plastic covered pallets arranged in bed lengths, on TOP of our hard/no dirt/shale surface. Currently I have (12) 'pallet beds' each 4' wide and 12' long. Each holds a variety of different size pots with different fencing, caging, trellising, insect netting or plastic covering etc, depending on the crop.

I have just about finished drilling all the side/at the bottom drainage holes. In the bottom of the pots, covering the holes up the sides, I use either metal screening or landscape cloth to keep the soil in and the bugs out.
The next few days after that are for filling the pots with 823 gallons worth of growing mix.
Then next week, the 85 seedlings under three tiers of light in the bedroom (I have a patient husband), will find a new home for the season.
The week after that (yes I know how late I am)- the veggies being direct seeded will go into their pots.

At a 'bad back/knees/neck' 60 years of age - there will be no more double digging raised beds for me, nor any more soaker hoses.

Tomorrow I'm ordering drip emitters for all the pots and also for the in ground beds that I have already growing. I'll continue to use an inline 'Y' filter (with even smaller filter holes) and also get the least clogging emitters I can find.

Luckily I can still use most of the old fittings etc., since I still have to come from the well spigot to a garden hose, to black feeder poly pipes, to the small tubing, to the emitters.
As long as I match the size of the feeder poly pipes to the size of the old soaker hose and use the same size drip emitter micro tubing as I used for the micro soaker hoses, I can use the same compression fittings and barb fittings. Then I'm only out the cost of the soaker hoses themselves.

But no more long runs of soaker hoses for me- not with well water.

Hope this helps. Good luck to you.
Rebecca

If the hoses start to slow down and won't leak any water, just pick them up and strech them a little, that will break the sediment up in the hoses. Just walk along the hose and give it a little strech down the whole length, If you pull them enough you can make the hoses longer.

I have done this many times, and it it works good.