Question about Soaker Hose and Alternatives

stella1751 · Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:53 am

I can no longer place the hose in my front squash bed without chancing an injury to one of the huge leaves, stems, or blossoms. I need to put something semi-permanent in there, something inexpensive that I can just hook up to my garden hose when it is time to water. I'm thinking soaker hose, but I've never used one of those before.

Do they have holes all along them? If so, won't a portion of them be watering the outside of the bed?

Are there any other options? Here's what the front of the bed looks like. I'll be hooking up the garden hose from the back, probably over the chain-link fence:

[img]https://i801.photobucket.com/albums/yy292/mitbah/squash_2.jpg[/img]

rainbowgardener · Tue Jul 28, 2009 1:02 pm

Soaker hose does usually have holes all along it, though I think you can find them with some of the beginning length unperforated. But you can always hook up a regular hose in between for length extension so that you can put the soaker hose just in your bed. Otherwise since it's just one bed, just carry your watering can out there and just pour water on the plant roots.

PS there are no dumb questions!

applestar · Tue Jul 28, 2009 2:56 pm

I have lengths of soaker hoses as well as regular hoses that have met their demise over the years -- lawnmawer, weedwhacker, garden fork jab, shovel slash, etc. I just cut them to lengths I need and inter-connect them with clamp-and-screw hose mending kits from Ace hardware. I even go from one raised bed to another this way with a regular hose in between. Some soaker hoses have actual holes along their thength, others just "weep" (very low water pressure needed). The ones with holes can spray out of the desired area -- I mostly lay the hoses with holes facing down and cover the ones that spray with some mulch to keep the water where I want.

stella1751 · Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:48 pm

Thank you, garden friends! Now I know what to look for. I'll be driving past Sutherlands in a couple of hours, and I'll stop and see what I can find. I think I would like the ones with holes in them; I can always moderate the water pressure. If I could find one with one or two unperforated feet at the beginning, I should be able to dangle the end out the back. Then the only time I would be thrusting a clumsy hand or elbow in their depths would be when fertilizing. (No weed would dare raise its head in the middle of these thugs.)

These guys are consuming gallons and gallons of water daily. Every now and again, I like to slowly flush a bed to get rid of the fertilizer left-overs the plants and the earthworms didn't have a use for. Yesterday, I took all other beds out of the watering rotation and trickle-watered this one. A pencil-thin stream took ten hours to seep out the bottom all along its length; they were sucking up the water as fast as it hit their roots. Now, if I can get a soaker hose in there by tomorrow morning, they can go back on the same water rotation as their neighbors, the peppers and 'maters

codyjp · Tue Jul 28, 2009 8:16 pm

why not go with a drip watering system? I've got about $25 invested in mine and everything is modifiable. If I want one plant to have more water or less I just swap out the driper. I can add and remove dripers easily and I don't have any sort of weed problem as the surface of the dirt is barely wet.

I'm using an already installed watering system that operates on a timer but they also make valves that you can just put in line on a garden hose so you can deliver exactly the amount of water you want, exactly where you wan it exactly when you want it.

Diane · Tue Jul 28, 2009 9:45 pm

applestar wrote:I have lengths of soaker hoses as well as regular hoses that have met their demise over the years -- lawnmawer, weedwhacker, garden fork jab, shovel slash, etc. I just cut them to lengths I need and inter-connect them with clamp-and-screw hose mending kits from Ace hardware. I even go from one raised bed to another this way with a regular hose in between. Some soaker hoses have actual holes along their thength, others just "weep" (very low water pressure needed). The ones with holes can spray out of the desired area -- I mostly lay the hoses with holes facing down and cover the ones that spray with some mulch to keep the water where I want.

I didn't know you could repair a hose. I'm looking for those conections soon. I have a 100 foot hose that I had to cut because of a hole. So it's running until I shut off the water.

stella1751 · Sat Aug 01, 2009 11:54 am

I went out a day later and bought a 50' soaker hose, reasoning I could wrap and double wrap and triple wrap the base of the bed. Whoops. The hose was too stiff. I instead loosened the coils along the middle, sort of like a monstrous electrical coil, and only lost three leaves and two male blossoms in the process.

For those of you looking for a new means of watering, man, I seriously attest to this. I don't turn it on full bore--when it fills, it squishes the plants outward--but I could watch it drip for hours. The plants, I suspect, seriously like it, and because the connection end hangs over the chain-link fence, I should only have to bother them when I fertilize. Yay!

I thought about taking Applestar's advice re: cutting and connectors, but decided to leave it full length. It's the perfect size for an accordion-type placement in most of my beds for next year.

Thanks for the advice. I love these soaker hoses!

gixxerific · Sat Aug 01, 2009 2:26 pm

Diane wrote:I didn't know you could repair a hose. I'm looking for those conections soon. I have a 100 foot hose that I had to cut because of a hole. So it's running until I shut off the water.

DO NOT get the plastic ones get as brass fitting they are WAY better. Oh and use some veg oil or something to help guide it in. Sometimes they are a pain in the butt. But MUCH cheaper than buying a new hose.

Dono