Re: Watering vines
Don Chambers asks:
>To the heavy hitters: ...
Well, that's not me yet (I'm just a hitter I suppose?), but I'll answer
anyway! :-) :-)
>My latest idea is
>soaker hoses buried 3-4" in a grid fashion. Has anyone tried this? Does it
>help cool the plant as well during hot weather in the day? How can I set up
>this grid pattern idea?
I use this technique. I had the same thought a few years ago- avoid most
overhead watering,
and get rid of powdery mildew. Well, it may help, but I found it will not
eliminate mildew- there's
still plenty of natural dew and rain to keep things moist enough for the
mildew. You'll
get it regardless of watering technique. I have heard that seaweed/fish
sprayed
on the leaves helps retard it though. One benefit is that you won't be
washing off pesticide, and
if it doesn't rain, you will be using a lot less poison in your garden since
you don't need to reapply.
I've found that the damp dirt can keep the plant from wilting in most cases.
Another benefit is
if you go away for vacation, you can just let it trickle out and when you
get back, everything's still alive. :-)
You can get a Miracle Gro in-line feeder, and fertilize right through the
soaker hose. Every time you water,
you can fertilize.
I bought 225' of soaker hose (3-75' hoses) and snake it back and forth in my
small (12'x35') garden.
I don't use a grid. Crossing the hose over itself would result in heavily
soaked spots where the hoses
cross. I plant the seedlings, then dig a trench for the hose... you need to
bury it before the vine
gets too long or else you'll be lifting the vine to put the hose under it,
risking damaging the main.
I bury the hose just below the surface, maybe a couple inches; I'm not too
particular (you won't
be too particular after a while either, digging a 200' long trench). :-)
If you lay
it on the surface it will work ok, but you'll have pumpkins laying on top of
it (pinching it), it'll be
more difficult to walk around in the patch, and some spray/mist will shoot
up and
onto the leaves. You'll find that the soaker hose soaks perhaps a foot on
either side of the hose
quite nicely, so if you dig the trenches and lay the hose a couple feet
apart you'll be ok.
I found that if I hooked up the entire length of hose together, the "end"
didn't have
as much pressure, and thus didn't water that end of the garden adequately.
To get around that,
I bought a "Y" splitter for the supply hose. I run about 1/3 of the soaker
off one side, 2/3 off the
other- get a Y splitter with adjustible valves in each arm so you can
equalize the pressure.
You can tell you got the split adjusted right by looking at the soak pattern
in the dirt after an hour or so.
I've been very happy with this technique.
Rick Inzero
near Rochester, NY
http://home.rochester.rr.com/srinz/rickspkins.html
Did I see bees? I did.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing archives: http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
