soaker hose

I am thinking of buying a soaker hose. How far do they dribble each side?

 

Haven't you got a hosepipe ban davido, if not I bet you wont be long.

 

Hey, you lot that's not fair, it was a reasonable question!

Soaker hoses, and any other hoses are still ok in a ban; providing they are connected to a water butt! Anyway, are they not more efficient and get water straight to the roots?

Anyway, i'm thinking of getting one myself!

 

Go get one then Dag, but I bet you'll be amazed how quickly it empties a water butt.
They are good at getting water to the roots as you say.
One thing though. will you get enough pressure from a butt?

 

No, you won't - we tried it!! If you're not getting enough rain to avoid a water shortage, you're not going to have enough to keep your water butt topped up!

 

Well, I live in hopes! My main tank is 150 gallons, and just over 3 feet off the ground to the bottom of the tank. It tops up my pond very easily which is 60 ft away and through a lot of bends. As I understand it, you need a minimum head of 4 ft, and my tank would be 2/3 empty at that point if the hose was at ground level. Would be better than nothing surely?

 

I'd certainly say it was worth a try up here in Bonnie Scotland - as we get more rain than the south of England - but I'm not so sure it's worth it in London. :rolleyes:

 

try www.leakypipe.co.uk
I laid ours along borders round shrubs etc.
it was then covered with mulch to stop evaperation
connected to a 200 gal[1000 ltr approx] tank fitted with a hozelock water dispenser meter.
this would only let out the ammount of water wanted.
the tank was connected to the down pipes of the gutter by a diverter put into the down pipe, to collect rain water....
luckily we have a couple of wells which we pump the water out to fill the tank if no rain.
its more efficient to fill the tank than run the pump from the well to water the garden

 

Hi, I suppose in this respect I'm lucky! My garden slopes upward from the house and my greenhouse and shed and 2 water butts are at the top, so gravity gives me a hand! I am going to get a porous hose and see how it works. I'm looking for a pump to get water from the bottom of the garden [2 more water butts] up to the top if the top ones run out. I have a head of about 30ft so hose should work, and if I just turn the tap on a little that will surely control the water flow?
On the subject of rain, Nixon, if you're having more than Wiltshire is I feel sorry for you! We're inundated...
Does anyone know the answer to Davido's question about how far the water spreads, I know it will depend on pressure, but examples might help?

[ 15. March 2006, 11:38 PM: Message edited by: Liz ]

 

Liz,
when you say you have a head of 30ft, is that all vertical? or is it 30ft sloping uphill?

30ft of head equates to about 13 psi, so you`ll need a pump that can deliver at least that amount of pressure (plus extra to overcome the friction losses of the pipe) and still have some flow to pump water up the hill.
The closer you get to the maximum head of the pump, the lower the flow rate will be.

Worse case scenario is the water doesn`t make it to the end of the pipe

 

Hi Hex, I mean 30' vertically, the garden is 120' long and the top is at least 30' higher than the house, quite a pronounced slope.Thanks for that info., at least I know what to look for now.

 

in my experience soaker hoses, seep hoses, leaky hoses, or what ever you want to call them are a waste of time and even can cause you more problems than you need, well these hoses really need to be left on vertually all day otherwise the water only goes down a few inches, thus encouraging surface rooting, leading to shrubs drying out and dying in hot weather or falling over in windy weather, best thing is to water shrubs well by hand for first two weeks after planting then leave them to find there own water.

 

Thanks for the help everyone. I think I'll follow elkhorn's advice. If I get all the plants in now I can spend the next 2 weeks watering them till the ban comes in.

 

HAVE USED LEAKY HOSE FOR ABOUT 20 YEARS IN BORDERS ETC. AND HAVE HAD NO PROBLEMS WITH IT AT ALL.
AS LONG AS IT IS COVERED WITH MULCH THE MOISTURE SEEPS INTO THE GROUND QUITE WELL, DOWN TO 9" IN SOME PLACES