I'm interested in this too...not for roses (grown in pots) but for my perennial garden. :)

I am just looking for recommendations for a good product - a workhorse soaker hose that worked for others.

I purchased some a few years ago that had a much better warranty try & find them.

You probably don't want a drip system, especially since you get decent rainfall? But what has worked best for me is a multifunction drip system--emitters on the roses, shrubs, and some trees, and countless tiny sprinklers plugged into the drip lines. These little sprinklers (three kinds) water all my perennials and annuals as well. Emitters on the bigger plants only was so inadequate in our dry area with hot summers. Diane

Hi Diane,

No, not a drip system with emitters and all that. Just a soaker hose. I don't see why it wouldn't work unless the product is of poor quality; the idea seems sound.

Soaker hoses lose water pressure after a certain number of feet--I used to know how many. You are probably aware of that. Diane

I set up a drip system that just hooks up to the hose. each plant gets its own dripper. It has been a game changer for watering. in my area, the soaker hoses ive tried rot out from the sun or pop holes in them after about 1 season. 2 if im lucky. ive probably had junky hoses though.

This is good info. Thanks! :)

My concern about a drip system is that I don't have access to running water from an acqueduct out at my land-I have to rely on water that I harvest or bring in that is stored in large tanks. So the water pressure depends on gravity and is not consistent the way it is with "normal" running water. Because of this doubt,I don't dare invest in a drip system-I think they require the the kind of pressure you can only have with running water. Is this true?

IME, drip systems need a pressure reducer to drop the house water pressure down to what they use. I don't remember what that was, but it was quite low.

The problem with soaker hoses is that the pressure near the faucet is much greater than the pressure at the end. So how much water something gets is determined by where they are in the run, then small changes in altitude come into play. They are very tricky things to get right, and then they have to get rolled up for the winter, and relayed again in the spring.

O dear. I would SO like to lighten my burden of watering work,but am very reluctant to spend more money on something that couldn't work for me. I am SO BAD at this stuff! ( calculating water pressure, for example...)

I have a drip system for my potted bamboo so I also can't give you advice on soaker hoses, sorry. I did install one years ago with my first bed--I wrapped it around plants in loops, the bed was narrow and long. This was before I realized that bed was the wettest part of my front garden and REALLY didn't need extra watering. Whoops! Then I couldn't untangle the soaker hose for actual years and had to eventually cut it to pieces to extract.

I've been thinking about setting up irrigation for some roses on the opposite side of the garden where it's very dry. I dumped a bunch of compost at their bases last fall--maybe that'll be enough?

That's the beauty of the system that Diane described above. You use 1/2" tubing as the mainline and then punch holes to attach 1/4" tubing, each of which has an emitter at the end. Each emitter is adjustable, so you can account for the difference in pressure. And as Mad Gallica said, you usually use a pressure regulator at the beginning of the water source. I like the fan spray emitters. Dripworks is a really good company, but I eventually got most of my supplies from the local hardware store.

Susan, explained it well. We added the little adjustable sprinklers; some are 360 degrees, a few 180 degrees, and some are extra small and 360. The landscapers installed the initial system, computer controlled with easy to change settings. There are multiple stations, one group for the lawn sprinklers, and another group of stations for the flower beds, trees, etc. We added the little sprinklers which have the tubing punched into the mainline. Our supplies over the years, including the tiny sprinklers, all came from Home Depot. Diane

Bart Bart, you may be able to do all right with just gravity feed from a water tank. It depends a lot on what kind of elevation difference you have between the tank location and where plants are. You might want to reach out to Drip Depot and see if they can advise you on your situation. They have kits ranging from very simple to rather complex. https://www.dripdepot.com/help

Thank you, Steve. I live in Italy, and getting help for something like this is not easy. However, I DID find some encouraging info on-line: https://alaskamastergardener.community.uaf.edu/2012/06/12/got-gravity-10-steps-to-set-up-low-tec/ This Alaskan woman says that it can be done, plus I found this company in India https://www.kisanestore.com/index.php?route=product/enquiry&product_id=164 that sells kits for gravity-fed drip irrigation. From reading the Alaskan gardener's article, it doesn't sound like you need a special type of drip system with watering from a tank, and in this case the sharp slope of my land does provide an advantage. So I am thinking about taking the plunge and buying the necessary to set up a drip system in a small area of my garden. I must study this some more. The fact is that, years ago, I bought soaker hoses but was very disappointed with them,however I was very, very inexperienced at the time and probably did not use them correctly.

Here is a system that should work for you:

You will need a timer, back flow unit, 1/2 inch black plastic hose — about 12 inches long, and a end cap. Also a pressure unit if your pressure is over 40 lbs which it most likely is -- most homes have 80 lbs pressure.

Connect all of that together and then punch a hole in the hose and install a 1/4 inch tap.

To that tap attach 1/4 inch hose, which you can run to your garden. Just lay the hose on top of the ground and pin it down with wire or plastic pegs about every 18 inches. The grass will cover the hose in a couple months. Make sure you run the hose in a straight line from the timer to the garden so you can find it later on in life.

Got that? lol

Now at the garden attach a ’T’ unit to the 1/4 inch hose. That will split the water in half. Need more lines, just add more ’T’s to the new hoses.

The added hoses can be any length as at the end the output will be determined by the number of ’T’s you’ve added.

Check out my old posts as I posted a picture of this set up a few years back.

Have fun

To further adjust the output you can add variable on/off units to the 1/4” hose. It would take some fine tuning but you could control the output for each rose and not use an emitter at the end of the 1/4" hose.

BTW this system will work with water from a storage tank, just remove the back flow unit and emitters.

As I said above If you have high pressure you may want to add a pressure unit to the timer setup. It limits the pressure to 40 lbs

Have fun…..

@toolbelt68

Thank you so much. The key here is the question:

" Got that? lol "

A:

Um ... will read again and let's hope it will be a "yes" at some point. :)

I do like the plastic hose emitters better than the soaker hose because you can put the water exactly where you want it, and not waste it in the spaces in between plants.

I'm assuming you don't get a lot of rain at your location in Italy. You might consider a bit of additional landscaping to make terraces, to keep what rain you do get. https://www.dw.com/en/locals-fight-to-recover-italys-lost-farming-terraces/a-58610726

When I tried soaker hoses I'd leave them on for maybe a couple of hours but the ground still was hardly moist. Drip systems sound better. I don't know how you punch a hole in a 1/2" tube and insert a 1/4" tube and keep it from being blown out by water pressure. My husband made a misting system for me for cuttings and I guess it also has these holes in the tubing . Hate to think of the water bill if I used a drip system.

I use some terra cotta hollow spikes with inverted wine bottles filled with water for some potted plants. I don't think they look that bad. They probably help some. They need refilling about once a week. Might try some for in-ground plants but they don't supply water to the entire area.

Am considering some tree waterer things that look kind of like donuts. They don't look good but might be useful for some plants that are out of reach of the hose. Has anyone used those?

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4744754/a-simple-watering-system-without-drip-units

The above link should take you to an old post of mine. You should find most of the parts you will need at dripdepot.com. I'll take a picture of my setup today and post it.

For those that don't have water pressure make sure you blow the lines come spring if you use the open end hose method as bugs have filled my hoses up with small pieces of grass.

********old post ******

The diagram shows how to water 8 plants with equal water going to each plant. To accommodate more plants just install more posts around the garden and run 1/4” hoses to them. To keep the water equal install Tees in the Feed hose or another tap in the 1/2 inch poly hose.

The timer is optional but will allow you to do something else while the plants are being watered.
To determine how long to leave the water on just put a container at the end of a 1/4” hose and time how long it takes to fill the container.

What you will need:


1. A Pressure treated 4x4 post 2 1/2 feet long.


2. Timer

3) Back flow preventer (See note on diagram)


3. Connector to attach 12 inches or so of 1/2 inch poly hose to the Back Flow preventer


4. 12 inches or so of 1/2 inch poly hose


5. A unit to close off the end of the poly hose. One such unit looks like a figure 8. You slip it onto the hose, bend the hose back onto itself inserting the end into the open hole of the 8.


6. A 1/4 inch connecter that you insert into the 1/2” hose (they sell a punch for making the hole in the 1/2” tube.)


7. 1/4 inch Tees


8. 1/4 inch hose (sold in 100 and 250 foot rolls)


9. Staples to hold the Tees onto the post


10. Tie Wraps or a small board to hold the hoses in place.


11. Small nails for holding the small board in place


12. Last but not lease would be a nice cap for the post as over time the top of the post will deteriorate

Here is a picture of my system;

On the right is the input garden hose coming from the house water bib. Next is a timer, back flow unit, and a filter. I have one continuous water hose. Next, are 3 lines for more timers that I used for a lawn watering system…. the pvc pipes froze and split open because I didn’t blow out the lines… oh well.

Finally is the open 1/4 inch line I suggest you use. I use it to fill the bird bath — saves walking out there with the watering can every day.

The mean looking tool hanging next to it is used to turn the on/off brass valves.

This is what I use connected to an automatic system with a pressure regulator at the valve for each zone so that the pressure is correct. I don’t know what that pressure is though. I also use the little sprinkler emitters on my roses. i get all these parts at my local hardware store.

Thank you for the valuable information @toolbelt68!

Toolbelt68, that looks like a nice system. I also liked the variety of parts available at drip depot . I made a really basic gravity drip system for my patio plants when I was out of town for a week in July. The tank was a plastic tote from Home Depot, with a tap and valve that I added. I left the valve cracked open so it barely dripped at each emitter. It worked out OK.

Almost anyone that has a roof with rain gutters can install rain barrels or a cistern and get some water for free. (More in some places than others.)

Of course, you have to keep that water isolated from the house water supply. Back flow preventer or air gap.

Erasmus, irrigation hole punchers are used to facilitate an emitter going into the 1/2 inch black tube.

Thank you, Sheila. I may show my husband this thread.

To add to that, the 1/4-inch lines have a barbed fitting that locks into the little holes you punch. The force against the fitting shouldn't be too high with a typical garden hose bib. If you decide you put the hole in the wrong spot, there's a little plug you can put in it. Or if that doesn't work, just cut out the section with the bad hole and use a coupler to join the hose back together.

When putting my water system together I ran 1/2 poly hose around the house then around the outer limits of the property. That is, along the top of our chain length fence and near the bottom of our backyard wooden fence. To get from the house to the fences I installed a trellis that I just ran the hose up and over. The roses covered the hose. I planted the roses along the fence so all I had to do was run a 1/4 inch line from the hose down to the base of the rose. Each Fall I undid the end cap so the hose could drain.

Now that Father Time has caught up with me I have removed all of my roses except for 9. ( I remember the Air Raid Sirens blaring away during WWII…..)