Soaker hose not really soaking

I put a soaker hose alongside my strawberries which fills under gravity via a normal hose from my waterbutt which is about six feet higher than the hose.

Initially, the water leakage from the soaker hose was quite brisk which was great but now it has really slowed down.

I was hoping to water about half of the butt each time onto the strawberries (a 12m row with about twenty plants in it) but this evening the water butt level had barely fallen after I had turned it on and forgotten about it for an hour.

Anybody got any suggestions as to why this might be the case? I have checked all the connections and there is water running freely through the system.

Apart from this, the soaker hose has worked well up until now and I am happy with it.

 

Water butt water is not very clean, so it may have blocked the holes in the pipe or there is not enough pressuer to get the water to flow through the hole

 

Might even be something as simple as a leaf blocking it.

 

Has the amount of water in the but reduced, reducing the 'head' of water and slowing down the flow? (possibly in conjunction with some crud in the soaker hose as suggested above)

 

Thanks.

Yes - it could be clogged up couldn't it.

I will try giving it a good flush through. All the connections have water flowing freely through but I hadn't thought about grime building up from the inside in the hose pores.

 

Ahhh - I think the other problem was my impatience!! Looks like I left the tap open all afternoon and the butt is now empty so the strawbs have had plenty today