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Re: Soaker Hoses (was Mel & So. Cal. Problems)

Long! Sorry!

Yvonne wrote:

>For vegetables and berries, I augment this with the "weepy hose" soaker
>hoses (NOT the hoses with holes punched every inch or so) covered with a
>minimum of 2" mulch.  Just run the hoses so they're a foot and a half apart,
>on either side of plants, so water seepage from both will meet in the
>middle, at the plant, and "pull" roots to the saturated soil.  With an
>automatic timer, they're the most efficient I've found.

Hi Yvonne,
I also use the weepy hose kind, and last year they worked well for
double rows (hic! hic! don't flame me) of vegetables, since I could
run them straight down the row. But this winter I spread the soaker
up one row of four square feet and down the next and so on, so the
hoses were smack in the middle of each square foot. I thought this
would work, but 9 beets a square was a problem. Also, four plants
(lettuce or whatever) was also a problem, because the hose was too
far away from all four, or close enough for 2 but not for the other
two. I hope I am making sense...It may be that my hoses are clogged
from our hard water supply here in the Pomona Valley, and this was
discussed previously on this newsgroup, the bottom line being I
should soak them in pool acid (hydrochloric acid) of some dilution,
but I never found anything big enough to hold them all and yet
resistant to the acid, and never figured out what concentration
to use that wouldn't eat the hoses!

I also have a connection with a pressure regulator and a filter
to keep the water pressure down (ours is very high) and to filter
out any impurities from the pipes. But every time I try to connect
an automatic timer I get a horrible leak somewhere upstream. So I
have to put them on manually which is no big deal. But it's only
April, and so far, just to keep 2 beets, two lettuce, six radishes
and some cilantro alive, I've had to turn on the soakers for four
hours every other day! I must have clogged hoses, but don't know
how to fix them. I'm very tempted to go right out and buy another
50 ft brand new. But I'd really hate to have to do this once a
year. There must be something I can do.
Shawn
swestaway@smtplink.coh.org
Claremont, Ca USDA9b Sunset19

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