I think they are a great and inexpensive way to water. I layed out and pinned about 800' of them several years ago and last summer they were still working well. That's not to say I haven't had any blowouts in them, but they are easy to repair with the little splicers that are available.

We don't have a large squirrel or chipmunk population to deal with here (just deer) so I can't advise you on that. I have cut through them with a shovel a time or two, damage quickly visible and easy to fix.

They are a great alternative to expensive systems and work just great for me. I've installed them just under mulch & a couple of places I have buried them. I do take them out every couple of years and clean them good with a stiff brush broom, just to keep the tiny holes from clogging. I must tell you that I don't live where the ground freezes.

Thanks, MorZ8 and calpat. I finally worked through some of searches and found other comments -- also mostly positive. Sounds like even a hard freeze area like mine won't cause problems because the hoses drain well. Still haven't found any other comments about the vermin possibly chewing on them, though. It's snowing again here now, so it's back to dreaming of sun and warm weather and digging in the yard!

--Tim

Dh And I installed soaker hoses last year when we had the bad drought last summer. We have squirrels everywhere and haven't had any problems. I have many flowers beds going so in between the beds we took a good hose and cut it up it and made connections. I wouldn't go more then 150' [3 soakers] as the pressure seems to drop too much. So there are many Y's for the hoses. I have it divided into four sections and watered 30mins per section and was the only one with flowers last year. Laura

Hearts, thanks for the info. Sounds like you did what I'm planning. Hopefully, my squirrels are as laid back as yours, but I'm not hopeful. My roommate tried stepping toward them to chase them away from his roses, kind of threatening, but they'd just run right at him! He took to throwing rocks at them. They would just sit and stare him down until the rocks got close, then just move a few feet away. Nasty little vermin!

timtijones

I have installed the soaker hoses. Old hoses with a nail puncture every inch and a half. I alwayed managed to get these from neighbours that were not pleased their hoses had a crack or leak and wanted to replace them. They always work for me and it sure beats moving the hose around. I have never had any problem here in the never ending freeze zone, but I do remove the mulch every spring and srub them down.

LOL, as far as the squirrels and chipmunk galore because I am in a rural area, Cayenne pepper around your plants (they get it on their paws and instant heartburn), as well as sticking cloves of garlic in the soil works as well as saving all the skins from the onions and garlic you peel and putting them in when you plant (no it doesn't smell to the human nose) keeps those critters away just fine.

I usually buy the cayenne pepper in bulk and always reapply around the base of the plant, not touching the plant itself, after it rains. When I plant bulbs in the fall or spring (again with the skin of onions and garlic) I just spread a layer of cayennee over the bulbs and reapply before they surface to keep those critters from digging up the bulbs. This has worked without fail for a few years now.

Red_Baroness, now that's an idea! Just puncturing old, cracked hoses! I wish *I* had thought of that -- I tossed 3 hoses (probably 50-75' each) when I bought this house 15 months ago. They were all in the garage, abandoned by the previous owner. I salvaged one, and I'm still using it. I'll check the neighborhood this spring, though, for other's cast-offs.

I had heard about the onions & garlic, but had hesitated to try it because I was afraid it would smell. I did use cayenne a couple of times -- seems to help with the squirrels, but the chippies just shovel it out of the way, cover it with dirt, and go on their merry digging way.

When I planted my bulbs (my first) out front last fall, I soaked all the bulbs in RoPel before planting, sprinkled powdered garlic & cayenne on the ground after planting, covered the whole bed with 1/2" hardware cloth, and then threw the mulch over that. The little boogers tried digging through it for a few days anyway, but then finally gave up. Now I'm just waiting to find out if all that was worth it. I started having a few shoots coming up just before last week's snow. Not sure what, because I lost my planting map over the winter -- maybe winter aconite or gallium. As the snow is starting to melt (it got into the 50's today -- YEAH!! and it's supposed to be in the 50's all next week with some rain -- DOUBLE YEAH!!!), hopefully I'll have blooms soon. I figure next month I can try to get the soaker hoses in -- March and early April are usually pretty wet, so I shouldn't need to use them until at least May.

I am SO ready for Spring!!!

--Tim

Tim, Hearts made a good point that I didn't think to tell you.....my 800' are NOT connected together, but I do have them in 200' lengths fed from four outdoor faucets. And, I can only run two of those at a time with my less than mighty water pressure, will occasionally have three lengths dripping at the same time if my once a week/10 days watering schedule has gotten off track. You do need to leave them on for quite some time, but little is wasted when your plants have gotten used to a deep slow infrequent soaking.

Furthermore, you can't run an open grass type water sprinkler at the same time as the drip hoses, the hoses basically stop dripping....and in my case, an inside shower or load of clothes in the wash will temporarily stop them too. The planning we go to for our plants!

MorZ8, Thanks. My whole lot is only 45'x145', and I'd already decided to basically quarter it and run the quarters alternately. I know from last year I can run sprinkler on the front lawn and 100' of soaker in a back bed (I only have one outdoor faucet, and have a 2-way splitter on it), and still have enough pressure to run the washer inside. If I follow my idea, I wouldn't be running more than one 150'-200' length of soaker hose at a time, and I could vary the schedule on the lawn sprinkler. Thanks for the info, though.

--Tim

Old soaker hoses picked up on the curb don't leak worth a darn, must be plugged. But now I'll try scrubbing them. I used new that was great. So I thought if I buried it, it would plug with slime & rootlets.

I like Red_Baroness' idea of folding, spindling and mutilating junk hose; or maybe just set the grandchildren to work with a nicad drill and "Don't try this when you go home!"

Hi Tim I like your idea. I just purchased the same hoses, I wanted to ask you do you make your own short hose to attatch to the faucet and then to the hose?Do you have the attachment to the faucet that lets you put more than one hose to it at a time? I know that I am asking a lot of questions but as you can tell I am a novice gardener.Also what can I do to stop the drip from the faucet? Thank You
marjorie

timtijones, others...

I use soaker hoses in my veggie garden and front lawn. I cut up the soaker and using "t's" and inline barb fittings made them fit in rows for the peppers, tomatoes, and strawberries. I covered with black 6 mil plastic mulch and it works great! I water once a week or so. I found that some plants like more water than others, so pulled the soakers up outta the fenceline flower garden. I put in drippers instead. I am going to put a soaker into my asparagus beds this fall.

My irrigation is purposely more complicated than it should be but I can tailor each station and type of irrigation (soaker, dripper, sprayer, fogger, etc.) depending on the weather all thru the timer. I have 2 or 3 lines in the same beds but each is different than the other. For instance, I have a sprayer line and a fogger line in my fern/shade garden. In my fence line bed I have a dripper line for my fruit trees and a sprayer line for the flowers to cool the hot afternoon sun. 2 lines run at 2 different times.

I put a soaker (bought in bulk @ home depot) in the front lawn and am gonna just leave it there and mow over it. I find my sprayers can't water deep like the soaker can...

Don't be afraid to cut up your soaker and force it to go where you want with splices. Also, I agree with the others on limiting each "run" to about 200' (no matter how you cut it and assemble it).

Good luck and remember, if you donm't like the performance, then just pull it up and re-do it...

msmarjorie: (I sent a direct email to you, but for any others who may be interested, I've posted the message as well) - Sorry for the delay. I took some extra pictures and worked up a quick webpage (http://www.tijones.com/house/Projects/projects501.html) showing the pictures and adding comments. Sorry for the size of the pictures -- if you don't have broadband, it may take a while to download them all. Let me know if this answers your questions. Eventually I'll turn this into a full-fledged project page, but right now it doesn't even show up on the rest of my website. Hope this helps.

microfarmer: Thanks for the additional comments and ideas. Right now, I've just got single lengths of hose in each bed, wound back an forth through the bed, connected to a 2nd or third hose where necessary, but still no splits. Where I'd really like to do something like that is with the front bulb beds or the two central back rose beds -- but both flank a poured concrete walk. I don't feel like digging up or digging under these walks this year, but if I eventually replace them I'll be installing PVC pipe underground so I can join multiple beds with only one inlet to connect the hose to. I'd love to do something similar with the lawn, but that won't happen (if ever) until I decide to resod.

--Tim

Tim, it took me a while before I cut up my hoses as I was just winding too, but for my veggie garden I needed more precise placement to coincide with my rows of toms, peppers, etc. so I toured the Ace hdwre. for the "T" fittings and used zip ties for the clamps (works good!).

I have an eight stage manifold with an electronic timer. One line goes out to the veggie gardens and I split it above ground to each bed. I put a hose thread fitting and pressure reducer (25 psi) where it came outta the ground. I then put on the splitter (I can turn off either leg/bed).

After the splitter I run normal hose to the start of my soaker run and then connect the soaker with an inline fitting (grey plastic, about $.35) and zip tie clamps ($1.49 for a hundred).

I then run a main soaker line and spur off that with the "T" fittings (about $.60 ea.) and run soakers down the legs of the bed between pathways (I laid brick paths and brick walls for the raised bed). I plant on each side of the soaker for a 2 for 1 watering. I don't run the soaker right at the roots, but off to the side about 2-6" depending on the plants space requirements.

I lay out my lines to get full coverage and plant on either side.

I adjust the timer for the season or about 7-10 days for the summer/spring/fall (it was 106 here today, but it was a dry heat...(about 17% humidity). I haven't run water since last weekend, but everythings standing tall and perky.

In winter I pull up the plants, plastic, and hoses and grow peas, cauliflower, radishes, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, spinach, lettuce, brussels sprouts, onion and garlic. I start over the next year with fresh plastic and reuse the hoses. I'm going on my 4th year now.

I want to try a roll paper mulch instead of plastic, but I got the plastic with the house so am just trying to use it up. When it's gone, I'll switch. I won't have to pull it up and send it to the dump, I can just till it in and roll out fresh stuff the next year.

Hope some of this helps out. Happy gardening!

Just to add my experience learned from my neighbor. On the way to work each morning he checked for thrown out garden hoses. He taught me to make a circle around each of my new conifers, holly, virburnum, etc, then use a graduated connector (HD or Lowes)to the beginning of the circle and at the end and connected it to the old garden hose that ran to the next tree, connected the soaker hose around and back to more hose, etc. Sometimes I had to use a "T" and once I had a problem because the old hose was of a larger internal diameter than all the others - so had to make another trip to the Big store. Had I used only long running lengths of soaker hoses, much water would have been wasted, plus I would have spent 4 times as much $. My area is 75 x 300 ft.

In one large section, I used one of those multi spicket things so I could turn on one section one late afternoon, and then another section the next, without losing water pressure - this was 300 feet from the house. I let the water run about 2-2-1/2 hrs each time. We had a horrible drought last summer and everything did super!

No I did not bury the hoses, the soaker black blended in with the dark mulch and from a distance you couldn't even see it. And it didn't bother me that the long hoses from the house were green and dark orange - I just laid them along the edge where the mulched beds met the lawn - again hardly noticable. Have lots of large and small critters and nothing was destroyed. I also cut up some traditional wire coat hangers and make u-shaped pins to hold the hose in place with needed. Other times, I used thick twigs and just poked them in the ground on either side of the hose. This was needed when first layed out, then the sun over a few days softened the hoses so they just layed there doing their job. In the Fall, I just disconnected everything, rolled each hose, tied with sissal twine and stacked them in the shed. Now they are ready for the new shrubs this year.

The point being I used much less soaker hose and did not waste water in areas not needing it by only circling the new shrubs and trees. For those with new landscape and tight budgets, surviving the first season is the most important. For me, after that, the trees and shrubs are on their own.

Hope this helps some of the few who are working with new shrubs that have been installed/planted far apart (allowing for their future growth and spread) rather than all close together for instant landscape.

Microfarmer, how do you splice them and what do you use?

Soaker hoses are great for saving water, But almost ALL plants benefit from water on the foliage. Give 'em a shower every now & then along with the soaker hose.
(I know I feel better afer a shower!)

For those of you who have used old hoses to create your soaker hoses what do you use to cap the ends?

susan

Can anyone provide any info on the recommended duration and frequency for turning the soaker on. Someone told me once every 10 days for about an hour. I intend to use soaker hoses for irrigating perennials in zone 9.

I have found that I can't do every garden on the same schedule because of variables such as distance from the hydrant, weather and type of plants. I have also found it necessary to quickly repair any hose that had developed a big enough hole to spray water on any plants that could develop mildew etc. Also, in some gardens toward the back of the yard I have cut off the capped end and replaced it with a second connector to allow me to water from either end to insure they all get the same amount of water. I have really good water pressure but still need to do this after a certain distance. It works great.

With respect to the squirrel issue, I wouldn't recommend using Cayenne pepper in the garden as I understand it destroys the nasal passages of the animals who come too close

How do you fix the blowouts?
MorZ8: "but they are easy to repair with the little splicers that are available." What are splicers?
I have 6 soaker hoses all with cracks.
Thank you.

Tim Jones,
Thanks for your post. I am looking at putting in a soaker hose system and there is a lot of good information in the responses to your post. Unfortunately, I found this post after I put mine in, but hopefully some of the questions I asked in my post are significantly different to warrant the new post.
Thanks, also for including a link to your website. The pictures were very helpful. I look forward to being able to post my (hopefully) success story come next summer. This summer will only see hardscaping and irrigation. I can't wait to enjoy a hasslefree garden!
BTW, my post is in the Xeriscaping forum under "Soaker Hose on a Timer?" If anyone has the time, help would be appreciated there as well :)

"Do you have the attachment to the faucet that lets you put more than one hose to it at a time?"

I have TWO of those. They broke.

They're made with brass, $9.95 at a *Mart store.

Apparently they're put together with brass sleeves inside. One popped out and got lost, the others all leak.

Now, on the other hand, those plastic "Y" splitters with shutoff valves last for years and years.

It's just, I wanted to have a nice, neat four way splitter. Not a gaggle of plastic "Y"s all over the place.

I put in PEX plumbing this Winter, and you can get nice brass manifolds with good ball valve shutoffs for PEX at Menards.

I may just go buy one of those and adapt it for garden use.

Good thread! I have a number of half barrels and containers in some of my beds (for plants which are sensitive to the walnut trees across the ppty line). Can I run individual drip tubes off the soaker hoses I already use in those beds or will that reduce the pressure so much the soakers won't 'ooze' anymore?
Thanks all, Will

I was in Israel last year and almost all the city landscaping runs off the soakers. No need for mulch either because the plants are put in right by the little holes and the weeds die due to lack of water.

In the little town where I stayed, they run the water once a day in winter and twice a day for less than an hour each time.

Their soakers are basically plastic tube with holes poked in them. Joints are done with simple sleeves and in a whole year, I saw only one or two leaks in my daily route.

There is an impressive amount of knowledge and experience here about soaker hoses! Tell me, how far from the plant should the soaker hose be placed? I'm watering various perennials including purple fountain grass, loropedlum, iris, and purple coneflower. They've were planted last year, so they're fairly established.

"Tell me, how far from the plant should the soaker hose be placed?"

That depends on your soil and the plant.

If you have sand, the soakers only directly wet the sandy loam out about 8 inches.

If you have clay soil, that holds water about fifteen times better or so. Don't get the hoses too close to the plant or it might drown.

Then there's the plant issue. Blueberries always have shallow roots and would drown easily with too much water, since their roots don't have root hairs.

I have soaker hoses in four separate garden areas, all running off one timer. There are lots of Y connections, which come with 2 valves each. I use sections of garden hose to connect the areas. Where the garden hose needed to cross a lawn, I cut a slot with a straight-edged shovel, pushed the hose to the bottom of the slot, then by stepping on the slot, the grass closed up.Â

I don't have soaker hoses longer than 50 to 60 feet, and I sometimes take the cap off the far end to check that all the water hasn't soaked out before it reaches the end. On one long perennial bed 6 ft wide, I have four soaker hoses in parallel 18" apart. On shorter beds, I wind the soakers back and forth in a serpentine pattern. I try to put the hoses between the flowers, not too close to them.Â

I have a potted plant hanging from a shepherd's crook at the end of one of these beds, so I plugged a drip line into a soaker hose and ran it up the shepherd's crook. It needs a little more pressure to get the water up to the hanging pot, but it works. The pot gets water much longer than it needs, but the extra water just drains out the bottom.

Some years I've had the soaker hose on top of the ground, and other years nearly buried in the mulch (barely visible). The water flows faster when above-ground, but when buried, it seems that the flow nearly stops when rain has already soaked the ground. (I have high clay content.) So I don't turn it off when it rains.

Squirrels, shipmunks, and winter frost haven't done any harm to the system, but I remove the outdoor timer over winter.

I also have a drip system for a potted herb garden, but that's on a separate timer.

Jim

I have installed soaker hoses for the first time this year. I have not buried them the suggested 3 inches under ground yet (but I will). I have noticed that there is a large amount of water that comes from the first third of the hose and a decreasing amount in the last 2/3rds of the hose. Will this equalize after I have buried the hoses?
The length is 50 feet and I run the water at 1/4 turn of the faucet (~40 to 60 psi). These are new hoses made from the recycled rubber.

I've used surface drip irrigation extensively in our yard (some soaker hoses mixed in, some of that laser-cut tubing as well), and have had considerable problems with squirrels chewing through the distribution tubing as well as individual emitters. All surface stuff so far, but I must have 800' in my system, so most of it is surface!

Most of my plantings are of natives, and they don't need my help after the first year, but I'm constantly planting and replanting, so there's always a need for the drip system. However, I haven't quite figured out how to move it from the plants that no longer need it to the new plants that do need it, especially if I'm burying the system to keep it away from the squirrels!

I've used them for a long time and they are a Godsend. Now however, I need to replace the pressure reducing washers in 3 of them and I cannot find them anywhere that I have looked. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it as would my lawn and flower beds.

I was so excited to bury my hoses and used them all year. However, I noticed that there was no water coming out near the distal (farthest)end. As I dug it up from the end, there was still no water. I am not sure where/how much water was actually coming out. I am planning on digging them all up (as carefully as I can) and just placing them on the ground and covering them with mulch. This will at least allow me to monitor them more closely and more easily fix any problems.

TBT

Tim,

I see you haven't posted here for a while, so you may never see this. But others might benefit from it.
I've had the black soaker hoses in my garden, covered by grass clippings, for over 20 years now. I never have cut through one, becasue I never till or dig my soil. And I've never cleaned them, since they've shown no signs of clogging up.
Something else I did that anyone whose faucet is not in or near their garden might consider. I have a regular, non-soaker hose coming from the faucet, in a flower bed about 8 feet from my garden. When it reaches the first plant in my garden, a tomato, I used one of those "clamshell" repair things to splice in the soaker hose. This way no water is wasted before it gets to the garden.
For people who have wells or have to pay hefty charges for their water, this might be well worth the trouble. Oh, you do need to make sure the soaker and regular hoses are the same size. I don't know why they make the soaker hoses bigger than half inch, anyway? That is plenty big enough to carry all the water your plants need, and a larger hose needs more pressure to be sure the water gets all the way to the end!

I have '150 of Walmart soaker hose winding through my garden. About 2/3's of the way through, from the surface it appears very little water is soaking through. Could it be there is plenty of water under the ground, and you just don't see it on the surface, or is '150 too long?

I was wondering if this might work. I was looking into the eco friendly lawns that need watering maybe once a month. I got to thinking that perhaps burying soaker hose under the lawn a couple of inches would be a very efficient way of watering without wasting. I have read that many people on the forum are having to clean the hoses annually. Is there some sort of sleeve (like they use on water testing pipes) that a person could put over the hose to eliminate the need for cleaning them every year?

I saw something strange yesterday.

I put in 1/2" drip irrigation between my Square Foot beds, and hooked up 1/4" drip hose in loops in the beds.

Well, I'm weeding, and noticed the drip hoses in the second row are dripping away like mad, but the soaker hose in the box next to me is barely sweating.

That's odd. The water pressure should be HIGHER closer to the faucet, not lower.

I checked for blockage, but didn't find any.

We are using a community garden (20x25) this year that will not have water on site. Which means we have to haul water there. I am trying to figure out an efficient way to water. My plan is to lay soaker hoses down the long rows and connect to pvc pipe at head of garden. The soaker hose would be connected to the pvc. Pvc is closed at one end and has elbow at other end where I pour in water and hopefully it would flow into the soaker hose. Any thoughts on this idea. I am worried there won't be enough pressure to get the water through the hose??? I have seen the self watering window box plans and this is how I came up with this idea. Help!