From

Location

Message

Date Posted

Manchester,N.H.

Has anyone used sprinkler hose before ? How does it work ? Last year I used regular soaker hose buried in the ground and it did not work good at all,it was always getting clogged .This year I am going to do something different I was thinking of the sprinkler hose on top of the soil.What do you think ?

3/1/2005 7:00:14 PM

Deer Park WA

We over head water all our gardens here using wizzer type sprinklers as it seems that impact sprinklers compact the soil. Soaker hoses work ok for limited coverage applications but are a pain in the butt especially if you poke a hole in one "in season"!!!

3/1/2005 10:01:43 PM

Montoursville, PA

Agreed totally with Gad's. Joel Holland has and sells what he calls a wizzer type sprinkler. Drip Works, of California has an online catalog and several choices of sprinkler heads that deliver a finer softer rainfall. They also have drip line feedline and watering supplys with a lot of design help in their catalog. There are wizzer type sprinklers that deliver 45, 90 and 360 degree fall patterns. The 90 degree patterns are nice if you can get coverage from two sides of a patch.

I have used wizzer heads from both sources and find them both very good.

3/2/2005 10:42:59 AM

Manchester,N.H.

A sprinkler hose is a soaker hose with a bigger hole every 10 inches and with pressue in would spray the water. But just hooked up to a 55 gallon drum and no pressure it would come out of the hose a little faster than just a regular soaker hose and have less chance of clogging.

3/2/2005 11:01:34 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Now I understand. Regional phrasology difference.

>Sprinkler hose here in New England is poly-ethylene pipe with no holes. Tees or saddles are used along with risers along the line & attached to irrigation heads that might be whizzers, fized spray, gear driven spray, impact, etc. types.

>Drip tubing has pre-made holes every 12 or 16" that drip at a preset rate at 40 psi. Regardless of what people say, this is NOT T-Tape. One popular name brand is Netafin.

>Drip Tape (T-Tape) is a soft collapsable pipe that has spaghetti tubes inserted where needed & an emitter on each.

When used as directed, both Netafin & T-Tape systems have pressure sensitive valves inserted at the ends of every run. When installed properly, these are also the lowest point in a system. Thus when an irrigation cycle ends, the pressure drops & the valve opens. This is supposed to clean out the lines.

Of course since we all want to bury our vines, we also tend to bury our emitters deeper. And this is where the trouble starts. High mineral finer textures soils are the problem. The finest particle tend to backflow into the drip holes & may either clog the holes or the valves that are designed to prevent such actions. Catch 22.

High organic fluffy soils are much less prone to this condition.

>Soaker hoses are porous & made from reconstituted tires that are highly regular is drip rate only when used singly. If attached to each other in series, the second one fails to work correctly.

3/2/2005 3:48:41 PM

Montoursville, PA

T-TAPE AS SOLD AND DISTRIBUTED BY DRIPWORKS OF CALIFORNIA

Education is wonderfull. Sometimes however one does not have enough. The description T-Tape as sold and distributed by many firms is absolutely nothing as described, in the above writing.

Drip Irrigation using T-Tape will operate successfully gravity feed with none, of the attached lines, so described above. There is no suck back that plugs the emitters that are built in. The operating pressures may be as low as two pounds or as high as ten pounds using friction fittings without clamps. It requires no pressure controll unless you wish, to feed it with pressure system piping or hose.

To study Drip Irrgation, on the ground or in the ground, that will pass safely any fertilizer or other product that will pass a 200 mesh screen go, to DRIPWORKS, in CALIFORNIA. They are on line. Their catalog nicely advises application and has a complete line, of fittings, for all types of systems.

DRIPWORKS IS ONE OF THE MAJOR SOURCES FOR WHOLESALE PURCHASE
AS WELL AS DO IT YOURSELF RETAIL.

3/2/2005 6:07:10 PM

Litchfield N. H. 03052

Anyone instered in T-tape or drip irrigation in southern NH area can go to Brookdale Farm in Hollis NH, everything in stock.

3/6/2005 5:36:21 AM

Manchester,N.H.

Thanks Bill,looks like I will have to give them a visit.

3/6/2005 10:21:21 AM

Montoursville, PA

Two years ago I installed underground gravity feed T-Tape. I put it in more or less at four inches under the surface with the holes down. Even distribution was very nice.

My humus content is over 15%. At eighteen inches apart over the whole patch from a single header along the high side it will deliver (if needed) one hundred and ten gallons of gravety fed water in an hour and twenty minutes. This permits daily application of aproximately two inches of rain a week......consideration being given to little or no evaporation. Most gallons per week or inches per week are based on numbers that include overhead watering evaporation factors. When delivered underground or even on the surface drip irrigation will present more available net water in the patch. Placing the holes down caused me no difficulty.

I used a 200 mesh T-Y Strainer that could be back flushed. Using liquid ferts did not cause a problem that the strainer did not protect.

3/6/2005 2:04:53 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Dwaine,

Do you remove the system every winter for winter? How does the recoiling of the hose go?

3/6/2005 2:45:00 PM

Eugene, OR

I also used t-tape buried about 3 inches deep at 12" on center and it worked well in soil with an OM of about 12-13%. The plant got ahead of me and I wasn't able to bury all the lines in time but where the lines were underground, there were hardly any weeds. The top layer of dirt stayed dry so the weeds couldn't germinate. I'll definitely be burying the entire system this year. Once the season was over, I just pulled it out of the ground for tilling, checked for leaks and clogs, and put it back out on top of the patch until spring.

Dwaine, I believe DripWorks recommends installing the t-tape emitter side up to prevent clogs due to sediment settling at the bottom of the tape.

3/6/2005 3:10:23 PM

Montoursville, PA

Not only do Drip Works recommend installing emitter side up so do others....however my stupid mind always asks why. The why has never been figured out. All flow is through and away from the openings in the T-Tape. The floww more relates to a seep than a flow. This year was the second year in which I managed to damage one of my lines. In each year I disected the damaged line. Even with my organic iron content in my water no significant build up was found on the tape walls or in the area of the openings. My inorganic iron in the water source all gets trapped by the 200 mesh screen filter. Roughly the same may be said for all patch treatments delivered in water. I have found no liquid that would not flow evenly and very well through the system.

I use the magnetic magic on the feeder line to the header. The magnetic devise may be seen in my 2002 diary. This creates an opposite charge in the flow from the magnetic charge in the lines. In theory this helps. This may be helping. All of my water passed through a 200 mesh strainer that I flush now and again when I remember that function is built in.

The tape is easy to pull from such shallow placement. I pull it every fall for tilling. It gets replaced in sections as the plant develops every Spring. Instead of covering the header in soil I toss ample leaves on it. Makes for easy service if I goof to badly. It is a bit onery, to roll up, but the lines are only as wide as the patch. I tag them as they come up so I know where and in what order to use them next spring. My patch is irregular.

Three or four years on top is life expected due to UV destruction and up to ten years under ground. I could be a tad off on this but it illustrates another value for underground use. There is a pretty good show and tell in both years of my diary.

3/6/2005 3:55:57 PM

Long Island,New York

Yes it does Brian....outlets up. But why did you leave the T-tape on the surface all winter? UV will break it down that way....

3/6/2005 3:57:09 PM

Eugene, OR

Good point Glenn...but laziness gets the best of me when it's cold outside. :-) They've been buried under a nice blanket of snow for most of the time but I guess now that the snow is gone I should think about putting a tarp over them.

3/6/2005 4:09:22 PM

Montoursville, PA

My ponderings and observations, on the up or down holes, is quite simple, in a gravity fed system.

On top, of the ground, with about four pounds, of pressure gravity created the lines will squirt two, to four inches, above the line. Turned down they do not dig holes, of any notice but they may make small puddles. If covered with a mulch the up holes do not squirt through the mulch when first put on. In time they may drill a hole. The up holes always make a surface damp or wet spot.

Under ground the up holes will make an over wet spot or possibly a small mud puddle which would settle, to the holes as the system shuts down. Holes down this can not be much, of an issue. In either case there is little if any back suction, to draw anything back into the system at such low pressure as found, in a gravity system under ten psi.

If there were any significant sucking when any system shuts down it would seem, to be, at higher pressures. In that event check valves would, if installed properly, eliminate shut down back sucking. Therefore I can see no reason, to be, to concerned either way....holes up or holes down.

I believe holes up advise reverts, to the majority users, where higher pressures are involved. This would be a system far more involved and much larger than most hobby pumpkin growers use. Even so...we get back, to square one. There are pressure reducing valves that would reduce thirty five, to fifty pound domestic supply lines, to ten pounds or less.

Dripworks will take any growers plan and advise based, on the pre-sale planning, in these matters. It is their expertise but they can not use it without a plan, on paper showing the aproximate local facts.

I go upside down seemingly against advise based, on local observation and experience because it works just fine, for me. Going underground is a bit out, of the box, called average. Most systems are designed for, on or above the ground use.

3/6/2005 6:18:05 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

I use T-tape each year, buried OK, on top OK as well. I pull and burn it after each season as it's a major pain to try and clean it up for reuse.

3/6/2005 6:39:55 PM

Montoursville, PA

Wow..........if I got caught burning that stuff here you would read about me the next day, in the Ketchum Quick Gazette. The piece I wacked with the hoe was burned. It smoked to fare the well. I have close neighbors...one with a very long nose.

Looks to me like I may get four or five years out, of the used lines easily. Mine come up relatively clean. I don't do anything but bundle them for the storage.

3/6/2005 8:20:52 PM

Deer Park WA

Come'on Doc, nothin like a good ole fashoned tire fire to get things ready for spring!

3/6/2005 10:16:17 PM

Montoursville, PA

Not here........Here you may burn paper only Tues., Thur. and half day Sat. And that may be a thing of the past soon.

Soon one will need a permit to burn a weenie here.

3/6/2005 10:27:00 PM

Picton,ON (j.vincent@xplornet.ca)

How do you folks bury the lines? 4" deep is a lot of digging on 18" centres?

3/7/2005 9:26:50 PM

Montoursville, PA

I have the cover crop tilled in and light second three to four inch top tilling. To make the trenches I simply drag a hoe to make a "v" trench. It is not hard at all. If it were I would be unable to do it due, to health issues and age. Run the tapes to the header. Affix to header and again flop the hoe on it's side and pull or push the soil back over the tape. Four inches in loose tilled soil is a breeze.

I use walkway boards to eliminate compression. You may see pictures of these words in my dairy. 2003 has the best in this show and tell part.

3/7/2005 9:37:30 PM

Puyallup, WA

Oh Doc....welcome to the Pacific Northwest! Soon...it will be against the law to light a match....no one can burn anything out here!

3/8/2005 12:28:47 AM

Appalachian Mtns.

I live where things are simple, and rural. We're not constrained by many of the laws, regulations, and limitations that other places are. Around here, most folks also leave their homes unlocked, cars too when going to the store.
I pity you urban flatlanders!

3/8/2005 5:40:52 AM

Www.extremepumpkinstore.com

I pity you after you just told us about yer unlocked homes and cars.......
BWA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!

3/8/2005 7:14:40 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Oh-Ohhhhhh......Time to lock up the seeds Kyle. LOL

3/8/2005 7:17:38 AM

I contacted dripworks today. I plan on using rain barrels that are elevated only about 1 ft. off of the ground for my water source. They advised me to go with their standard 1/2" main line tubing and put in 1 gallon emmiters. They stated the advantage of the 1/2" tube over the t-tape was that the tubing could be looped around and bent at different angles where the t-tape couldn't. They said that this system should work even with my low pressure. They advised not to bury it and that clogging would not be a problem. Anybody have any experience with this particular idea?

3/10/2005 7:46:36 PM