I bought my first soaker hose! Question??
kiendu
17 years ago
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Comments (14)
playinmud
17 years agopeat_humas
17 years agoRelated Discussions
Soaker Hose/Watering Question
Comments (8)Well, in my 30 odd years of growing roses, I have used just about every watering method known to man. Believe it or not, soaker hoses do deliver a lot of water, depending on the type you may be using. The term soaker hose is sort of generic, I mean it covers everything from the green hose with the holes in the top turned upside down to leaky pipe. Some nursery supply houses even sell a canvass one that really puts out the water. It is very hard to tell exactly how much you are putting out, but when I used them, I would normally turn the water on for an hour, and see how the roses looked after a couple of days of that. If they looked OK, I would use the one hour interval, if they were too wet, I would cut back to 30 minutes or go up 30 minutes to another hour, if they were too dry. After a time, I put one of those battery operated electronic water timers on the system, so that I wouldn't have to control it myself. The timer would come on when I wanted and be on for the requisite amount of time and then cut off, every day or every other or whatever. By using the water timer, I wouldn't have to be there to control anything, and the roses would still get watered. What you choose to do is really up to you. I don't use soaker hoses anymore, because I have found something I like better, and am sure that my time interval is just right. We are under water restrictions here, so I have to be more careful now....See Moresoaker hose questions - IF
Comments (5)Sounds perfectly normal to me and yes these are designed to be run at intervals, the length of which is chosen by you. They are very effective I have had particularly good luck using soaker hoses with tomatoes, which grow better when watered this way. To determine, with accuracy, how much water my soaker hose emitted I coiled it up on top of a window screen which I laid over a plastic kiddie pool. I then ran the hose for ten minutes and poured the water from the pool into 5 gallon pails and found the flow rate in GPM. This enabled me to control carefully my water applications....See MoreSoaker Hose first timer-questions
Comments (2)dancingmirror, I suggest that you surface water the whole planted area thoroughly and deeply. You might have to do this each morning until the plants 'remain upright' from one day to the next. After this, keep the bed replenished by running the soaker hose to maintain this condition. Using your $30.00 outlay, it could buy you 60 plants at best. At one square foot per plant that's 60 sq.ft. total. That is not a lot of annual bed to take care of but my perspective may be different. Disney World in Orlando, Florida had a standard of 15 minutes labor per sq. ft. per season. They had automatic watering and applied all the fertilizer at the time of planting; and this was a long time ago....See MoreSoaker hose questions
Comments (3)Just enough pressure to sweat. Not to spray. If yours is "dripping a cup of water every five minutes" that's the reason it's splitting. Excess pressure. Remember this: Sweat, only. Further, the length should be limited to 100 feet. If longer, output, dwindles at the far end. Check the label with the hose to determine if that's true for your brand of hose. Further, you have to determine how long to run the system for your soil. Hook it up, turn it barely on (sweat, only), then run for an hour. Turn off and wait one hour. Return; move hose aside; trench crosswise to determine how far down, how far sideways. Is that enough to moisten the entire rootzone of your desired plants? If not, return hose to original position; turn on system and run (sweat) for another hour. An hour later, check again. What's the moisture distribution? Repeat if needed. At my place, I run the soaker for 2 hours every 6 or 7 days. Your results may be different because mileage varies according to your soil....See Morevalereee
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