It's called '1/2" Emitter Tubing'
Posted on 07/20/2016 7:35:36 PM PDT by EinNYC
I am tired of having to waste time positioning a sprinkler, turning off the water and moving the sprinkler a little to the left, a little to the right, etc. so that it hits all parts of the garden but does not spray the front of the building. So, I am going to the soaker hose solution. I'll just turn on the water and voila! Garden gets watered.
I just acquired a 100' soaker hose kit to water my garden. It has 20 little T-s, male parts, female parts, and who knows, maybe some transgender parts, too. Haven't looked over the little connector parts that carefully yet. I also picked up a bunch of garden staples to tack the hose to the ground. After I install the system, I will lay down a couple inches of mulch.
Do any FReepers have experience in laying out a soaker hose arrangement in their garden? Are there any special caveats or hints you could share?
Thanks.
Take your 100 ft soaker hose in your hands, turn on the water, and slowly move in a 180 degree semi=circle to water your yard. You can have a few more degrees of movement for things around the corner of your house or you can just walk over to the area that needs watering.
Good exercise and everything you want watered gets watered. The plants, trees and grass will love you for it.
And you know me how? I wasn’t talking to you exactly. Some other posts on this thread.
A FReeper posted a request for help, and some smarmy jack-wagons bagged on the FReeper. I clicked the post, hoping to glean some knowledge from anyone as I have been thinking of doing it myself.
I now know who some smarmy-jack-wagon FReepers are.
Thanks.
She should risk going without permits. The EPA monitors those things like a hawk and will take her land away because it will be deemed a “wetland”. /s
I find no reason to extend nor revise my comment...
"Really, really smart male neighbors"? Where do you find those? I know far more about designing, building, and fixing stuff than the male neighbors of my acquaintance. They can put gas in a car, but they would not be able to replace a starter.
The little toy sit-in car I bought for my neighbor's daughter's first birthday had its steering wheel come loose last night (the little spikes that are supposed to keep it inside the dashboard are not very strong), and his wife asked me this morning if I could come down and fix it for them. Not the first thing I've ever fixed for them either. They don't even own any tools! I'm more than happy to do it, but your "really really smart male neighbors" seem to have a lot in common with hens' teeth, I'm afraid. That's why I turned to FReeper help. We have a lot of "really really smart" people---male and female---on this forum and so I have some choice brains to pick.
Agreed, soaker hose seems to last a year or two, tops. The flexible drip watering systems are more durable - there's even a perforated version of the 1/2" plastic water distribution line, that puts out more water than the traditional soaker hose (which just seems to "sweat"). A series of little "bubbler" sprinkler heads poked into the regular non-perforated 1/2" line work just as well, and let you concentrate the water where it's needed.
Ya gotta know how to pick’em.
Slim pickins!
What you have is not a soaker hose. It is a drip system. Throw it in the garbage and get yourself a real soaker hose. Next year plant your garden in rows. Lay the soaker hose(s) along the rows. Turn it on when you need to. Works great.
Put down the beer.
Yes...call the man. :)
You really need a drip irrigation system. Half-inch black poly tubing as the main lines, then run 1/4 inch lines off to the plants. Easy to design and install. Check out Drip Depot for ideas. Google “drip irrigation design.”
Yes, while I want to like soaker hoses, they are fragile.
Just had to replace one yesterday and two last year.
I just thought it was bad luck but, thanks to this thread, I now know it was the hoses.
Too bad, it sure is nice to let a soaker to slowly do its job while I sit inside relaxing instead of standing outside holding the hose in the extreme heat while mosquitoes eat me alive.
On the positive side, Soakers irrigate which is much more efficient than spraying.
If it’s a true “soaker” hose, you’ll be surprised by how big the pressure drop is from beginning to end. Flow at the tail end is ‘way less than at the head.
I concur with fulltlt’s post # 29, with a couple of added comments.
In addition to real soaker hoses, get a bunch of those y-shaped thingys with the little switch you can flip to direct the water flow on or off whatever rows need more or less watering.
Also a bunch of t-shaped thingys.
Both t- and y- connectors can accommodate the soaker hoses in 3 directions.
You can (should) also have some lengths of solid plastic, non-soaker hoses for the areas where you don’t want to disperse / waste water, ie from your faucet to the garden area. You can cut and use old garden hoses, or buy the fat black plastic ones.
Then sit down with your pencil and paper and draw your garden rows plan, determining where you’ll need to put the t’s and the y’s.
When you’re satisfied with your plan on paper, then you can actually cut your hoses and attach them to your t’s and y’s.
Put out bowls of water for the critters. Otherwise they’ll chew your hoses.
Hope this helps.
In addition to fencing (deer) and chicken wire (bunnies), I put out my dog (hell on ground hogs). Drinking water is still available externally for all, at least when the dog is inside.
And the fragility.
Courtesy and respect for one another used to be a hallmark of FR, but that was many years ago.
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