Soaker hose

[RxPain-]

Has anyone used/had success using a soaker hose? Wanted to give it a try and have automatic watering to 20 minutes every other day. Placed soaker hose a few inches under broccoli and iceberg lettuce.

 

[Sean Regan]

I've used a leaky hose system for years.
It runs from the end of the border near the house around the rockery and then along the rest of the border and round the small border in front of the back fence.
There's a pipe that runs from a tap at the corner of the house and comes up behindthe furthest end of the rockery so it's nearer midway between the two ends. I've two Hoselock valves, one at at each end of the rockery.

With these I can water either any, one, two, or all three sections. The idea being to isolote the rockery if necessary as the plants don't need too much water.


I've also got a timer on "the tap end." With this you can determine how much water you're going to use, or have it permanently running if the tap is on.

I don't require anything more sophisticated.

Here in the UK I don't use it much except occasionally in a few months of the summer.

We've a very small lawn, two mains pressure "pop up" sprinklers take care of it.

 

[RxPain-]

I live in Alabama and we get a decent amount of rain in the winter. I have a very similar set up that can run manual and automatic. When you run it how long do you let it run? Been trying to decide if I go to long or not enough

 

[Sean Regan]

Leaky hoses here don't leak that much unless there a lot more pressure than normal. I leave mine on overnight and check in the morning. There'll be a damp patch six inches or more wide, above the line where the pipe is buried. But I guess the spread will be wider below ground.

 

[DirtMechanic]

I live in Alabama and we get a decent amount of rain in the winter. I have a very similar set up that can run manual and automatic. When you run it how long do you let it run? Been trying to decide if I go to long or not enough

South of Montgomery Its the beginnings of the semi-tropical plain. I bet you use as much as twice the water I do up in Birmingham AL. Sean is in a cool area relative to us in the deep dry of late summer especially. I try to keep 1 inch per week as a minimum and it does well here. I guess you could put a known length of soaker hose in a 5gal bucket and take a time\volume measurement.

Was Eagle?