Soaker hoses

We've used soaker hoses for a long time, but haven't been really happy with them. They water unevenly, and get even worse when our hard water evaporating plugs up the pores. I've considered making a trough out of plastic sheeting and soaking them in vinegar, but no need -- we're switching to t-tape this year.

Turtlehead, that's an impact sprinkler. We use them on our garlic, as the beds are too wide for soakers and the larger drops from the impact sprinklers will penetrate the mulch; finer drops just rehydrate the top layer and then it sheds water instead of letting it through.

A farmer north of here is using mini-sprayer sprinklers on his lettuce and other greens, as he finds they need the extra humidity. And it helps them stay nice in the heat of the summer.

What about burying one inch PVC Pipe with holes drilled in it?

big rockpile

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My brother retired his soaker hoses after only a few uses. He just couldn't get good soil penetration in his sandy soil, maybe for the reasons noted above by others. He now uses regular hoses hooked to sprinklers to water his garden.

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around here drip tape runs about $22 per 1000 feet and while we replace it it every year in our beds the commercial guys are getting three years of use out of it. We have very hard water (600-800 ppm) and very hot summers (100+ F) and have no problems with mineralization clogging up the tape.

Hi

From another post of mine, showing hoses we have been using for the last six years, with hard water, no plugging though.

The best thing is we use drip irrigation hoses with 0.5 gpm/ft regualted flow each foot, and we use a deep-straw mulch. We can go away for two or three weeks and it works. We have a second water-well pump connected to a timer and the garden works fairly well -- better to be there ALL the time -- 100% -- but if you have to go -- our idea listed above will work.


Black drip Irrigation hoses, and heavy straw mulch -- peas and beans -- starting out -- last June.

Good luck,

Alex

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I did too, until I installed a screen washer at the inlet. The screen keeps out the silt from well water which plugs the little holes. I am also thinking of using a settling tank in the garden with a blow off valve.

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That's not a bad idea rockpile, thanks! I have access to several ash trees that were cut down but left last year. I am going to pull them out with my 9N and make some raised beds out of them. I could mount some pvc about an inch above the raised beds so they would drip near the plants.

We have very hard water ourselves, and I never even took that into consideration. Would the spring fed water I will be using be as hard as the well water I have? Probably, right?

Thanks sebastes.

Thanks Alex. I would think that the straw mulch will help out with keeping the hoses clean. Do you have good coverage and soil penetration with the soakers? Do you have hard water?