I'll be interested to hear the answers to this also. I have soaker hoses now and they're OK but often times the farthest ends don't get as much water as the beginning so I have to supplement with the hose in those areas. I'm sure drip irrigation would probably be more evenly distributed. I also understand that you can add attachments to the system for liquid fertilizing which would be nice.

I have both, and both are connected to my irrigation system. They both do the trick, and both have the same downside - with our limestone bedrock, our water has a high lime content which tends to clog both the dripworks emitters and, eventually, the soaker hoses. We found a new type of emitter that doesn't seem to clog up nearly as much on our drip system. I've managed to slice into both systems at times with a shovel when putting in new roses! The dripworks emitters do put out more water, which is a big help in the hotter dryer areas of my garden. One of the places I have soaker hoses is under a row of hydrangeas, (also hooked into our irrigation system) and they really don't give enough water to those plants, which often droop in dry weather. I will probably replace those with Dripworks line & emitters.

Sorry to be so ignorant, but who or what is "Drip Works"? We had a drip irrigation system years ago, and had to replace all of the emitters with those little sprinkler ones, because in order for the plants to get enough water we would have had to run each station 24 hours! We also replaced some of them with soaker hoses when they either always got clogged, or the drip thingies got chewed/eaten by animals looking for water. I only use 25 ft soaker hoses, as the water pressure in the 50 foot ones does not come out even at each end.

So, is "Drip Works" a new kind of system? What is different about it? Thanks -

Jackie

Hi Jackie,

Drip Works is a company that carries a variety of irrigation materials, including the tubes and emitters that some of us use.

Here is a link that might be useful: Drip Works Website

When I first got into gardening I tried both. I have ended up with the soaker hoses. I kept moving plants around and every time I did it seemed like the drip head was in the wrong place, so it was just easier to use a hose that's easily moved and then put back in place when I change things around. There is some maintenance involved since the soaker hoses are usually made of recycled tires and eventually break down. You will need to have some extra female/male hose ends as well as splicers. The hoses come in 1/2 inch and 5/8 inch diamaters. 1/2 inch works alright on small beds if you keep the length down to a reasonable amount. 5/8" at 50 feet has been acceptable for me in larger beds. The beauty of soaker hoses is that you can make them as long or as short as you want. A small "ring" will water one shrub stuck in a sea of grass or a 50 foot length can be woven around the perimeters of a tree and used to soak it overnight. Personally I like the versatility of soaker hoses......Maryl

In our drought in Texas, I've heard a lot of people mention that their drip system was just not enough to do the job during summer. I have tried the soaker hoses, after a couple of years they are toast with rotting and splitting. I have finally decided to bite the bullet and put in a sprinkler system, yikes, can't believe the price!

In this semi-arid desert that I live in, some form of irrigation is needed on a regular basis with no let up until winter. I've found, after experimenting with different methods, that a combination of drip emitters that run to individual trees, shrubs, roses, and other plants that are in a permanent (or at least semi permanent)location, and three kinds of small sprinklers hooked into the drip lines, work best. The larger plants get plenty of water, while the perennials and annuals, which may be moved, also are watered. Since the small sprinklers can be moved a few feet, depending on their tube length, they can water the plants that get moved around. It's a pain to move the small sprinklers to make these adjustments, but no plant goes without water. Our system was partly built by us, using small sprinklers from Home Depot. The sprinklers are micro sized, and larger 360,180, and 90 degree water patterns. Southwest Idaho receives 12 inches of total precip in a good year, so everyone is forced to become watering fanatics. Diane

My entire garden is irrigated using drip ... with the little adjustable Shrubblers as emitters. Though it took me a little bit of time initially to calculate my water flow and design the system, I am over-the-moon happy with how it performs. Now that my roses are mostly mature, I don't use it as often as I did years ago, but I still need to fire it up every so often in the summer (in the Classic HT bed, mostly)

seil, you can attach fertilizer applicators to anything you can run a hose through. A friend showed me how he attaches an old-school Miracle Gro feeder between his supply hose and his soaker hoses in his rose garden to give them a little pick-me-up. I have been known to do the same thing with my drip system, using my Dosatron ... water in, fertilizer out.

The various zones throughout my garden are nothing fancy. Most are controlled manually ... I turn the hose on, wait a while, I turn the hose off. I measure the amount of water that the garden gets by putting the last emitter on the line into a bucket. When the bucket is full, I turn the water off and dump the bucket of water onto that last rose. For timed applications, especially in situations where I am known to forget that I have the water running, a rotary hose timer (like the old kitchen timers) works great.

This year, when I needed some more supplies, I discovered that Lowes carried much of what I needed in their plumbing department. They didn't have the 3/4" tubing that I use for my main supply lines, but they did carry 1/2" and the 1/4" spaghetti tubing, and the price was lower than Dripworks.

Dripworks customer service is superb! A few years ago, I needed 300 feet of 1/2" tubing (before I discovered it at Lowes). It comes in 100 and 500 foot rolls, so I bought 3 100 foot rolls. Within 10 minutes of placing my order, on a weekend mind you, I received a phone call from a real human to make sure that I hadn't accidently clicked the order too many times and that I really did need 300 feet of tubing.

I was laying out two new gardens in the lovely fall weather yesterday, and all of the roses in them will be supplied with water from drip irrigation. It is the only way that I can grow roses on the scale that I do here.

lainey2, you live fairly close to me. I will be happy to walk you through this, if you want.

Connie

P.S. Here is a link to an old, old blog post with the steps I took when I put in the HT bed in my front yard. There's a good photo in it of the irrigation system as I was installing it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Making the HT beds.

What a lovely offer to help, Hartwood! I live in Roanoke, a little distance from you, but my husband occasionally attends conferences in Fredricksburg. I've told him that I want to go too the next time he is out your way. I'll let you know I am coming and I would love to drop by. I don't grow roses on your scale at all, but I'm eager to learn all I can. Thank you so much.

I would point out, although I am a customer of Drip works sometimes, it really bothers me that they sell that hard water demagnetizer. It's a complete hoax! Magnets on pipes is about as useful as magnets on people! If magnets on pipes did any good, all the countries with a lack of water would be using it to desalinate (the ultimate "hard water"). Another company that does just as good of a job is dripdepot.com and they don't sell snake oil magnet gimmicks! I've actually gone to the length of emailing dripworks to tell them my displeasure about promoting this snake oil, but they never responded! But they do have good customer service besides that.

But I digress, for my roses, I used to use individual "bubblers" or "shrubblers" one per rose, but I found they put out too much in a concentrated area, so I switched to the 1/4" drip line at 9" or 12" spacing. I make a circle around the base of the rose so it makes the roots grow out slightly. You can see in a few of these pictures the brown "rings" around the base, I prefer the black 1/4" drip hose, but it varies by what's in stock etc... I've had pretty good success, and these roses are 2-3 years old.

June Flush
October End of season

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When I started my garden, I used soaker hoses. The roses were babies and the circles of hose around them were small. Then the roses started growing and compost and mulch had been put down several times on top of the hoses. Pulling the hoses up in order to enlarge the circle around each rose was a pain in the butt and tricky, often tearing the roots. The most serious issue with soakers is the type of soil you have. In clay soil the water from the soaker will spread wider before it flows downward. In sandy soil it doesn't spread as far before gravity pulls it down, so more circles of hose are needed to wet the same area and more water is required. I found them to be inadequate during the Florida summer with my sandy soil.

In the winter of 2010 I switched to micro-sprinklers from Lowe's like Nanadoll described. I like the sprinkler heads, which are basically misters, because I have placed them so that the whole bed is watered, i.e., the whole root zone of the roses and companion plants which keeps the soil cooler and the microbes happier with no dry areas. It's a very flexible system in that connections are easily plugged if not needed, moved or added on. The different radiuses mean there is very little overspray and wasted water. My only problem with the micro system has been the squirrels. They chew into the connectors (and regulators, valves, hose-end converters, etc), creating geysers, loss of pressure and dry garden beds, so if you run the system while your still asleep (like I do) unless you test the system regularly, you won't know you have a problem until the plants start to decline. I have had to bury the connectors or wrap them in hardware cloth to protect them from the %^#%@$* squirrels. I also wrapped the 1/4" lines going to the pots because the squirrels would cut them. They chew off the top on the shrubblers (they spray in a wagon-wheel pattern) which creates a geyser. Also, some of the little connectors between 1/4" tubing & the 1/2" poly are tricky because there is a right way and a wrong way to insert them in the poly. If you insert the wrong end into the poly, it's not a secure connection and it will pop off - uh-huh, creating a geyser. So there is a learning curve to this system, but once you get the hang of it, it's great.

I'm very happy with my micro system. I only have a .17 acre lot (60x125) that is all garden, and I used at least 400' of 1/2" poly. The great thing is that you can easily extend it which I have done. Pressure has not been a problem, and I have sprinklers about every 6' on both sides of the beds.

But I have learned to despise squirrels with a deadly (I wish) hatred since they also chew the canes on my climbers constantly.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Ocelaris, where do you get the bubblers? On Line? Sherryocala, do the misters get the leaves wet? Thanks for sharing.

Lainey2, yes, the leaves get wet but since I run them early in the morning, they dry off quickly in the sun. Being Tea and China roses mostly, my roses are pretty resistant to black spot so being wet doesn't bother them. I guess the misting might bother roses that are more susceptible to bs. I hadn't thought about that. :((

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...