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Re: Filtering & Soaker Hoses



----------
> From: Meconella@aol.com
> To: veggie-list@eskimo.com
> Subject: Re: Filtering & Soaker Hoses
> Date: Saturday, June 06, 1998 5:11 PM
> 
> In a message dated 5/29/98 11:29:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
for-pac@cdr3.com
> writes:
> 
> << 
>  You get "salt" build-up in the holes of the soaker hose (or sprinkler
system
>  ) and slowly (or maybe quickly) ends up clogging the holes. The smaller
the
>  holes, the faster the clogging. To help reduce salt build-up is to flush
the
>  system after fertilizing. Do the fertilizing, then open the end of the
hose
>  and let the water help clean out the hose/holes. That doesn't solve the
>  problem, but does reduce it. 
>   >>
> 
> Is it salt build-up,  or calcium carbonate?  I have hard water and get
cal
> carbonate spots when I wash dishes.  I wonder if the soaker hoses clog up
with
> that when simply watering,  and if so,  a periodic flushing with a weak
acid
> solution would unclog them?  (Not of course while in the garden.)  When I
had
> a swimming pool,  a dilute solution of muriatic acid was used to remove
this
> build-up of gunk precipitated from the pool water in the filtering
system.
> Sort of the same principle as using Lime Away in the house.
> 
> Janet.

I gave up on soaker hoses several years ago and converted to drip tape
(T-Tape) because the uneven water distribution resulted in wasting too much
water.  And messing around with in-line pressure equalizers and cleaning up
calcium deposits was just too much trouble.  It had also occurred to me to
use HCl but it's not something we usually have on hand so I used Lime Away.
 In the low desert, we subsidize irrigation for commercial ag but the home
gardener pays the full price and the rates are set to increase during the
high-water-use summer months so the payback using T-Tapes was about 2
years.  My longest runs with the T-tapes are about 60 feet and I haven't
had any problems with either calcium build-up or uneven distribution.  I
use the T-Tapes under mulch and have reduced water use to about half of
that when using soaker hoses.  A student in my vegetable gardening class
uses inexpensive flag emitters installed along the soaker hose near the far
end to equalize the distribution - not something I've tried.

Olin
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