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Santa Cruz, CA

I'm putting in soaker hoses for the first time this year. I have two hoses per plant. Should I be watering the area that will not get a vine near it for a long time or hold off and water that area when the vine gets closer? Is the logic to keep the whole pumpkin area moist until Fall or water the area as the pumpkin plant grows?

5/11/2006 1:25:19 AM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

Kristine

I would only water the area the plant uses + go an extra 2ft all around the plant for the new roots that are forming ahead of the plant. Your only wasting water, watering all the patch this early in the season. You will be watering the whole patch by the middle of July though. Good luck.

Phil

5/11/2006 6:47:59 AM

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Are two (50') hoses per plant enough? I am not sure. I think that I had two on one plant last year.

I think it's hard to know exactly how much water the soaker hoses are letting out. It took a lot of experimenting before I got it close. And, I still managed to flood the patch. I also had root problems (my plant died early) that probably had more to do with fertilizer burn than anything else.

5/11/2006 9:55:19 AM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Two 50' hoses radiating outward from the crown in a circular pattern don't really cover the entire root-zone but they come pretty close. They won't do anything for the main & secondaries which are actually MORE complicated due to the triangular pattern unless 2 plants are grown toward each other. Then you can treat the middle like a rectangle.

Don't attach two soaker hoses in SERIES by screwing them together. The output from the second hose will drop off severely, plus you'll be stuck watering the second area long before you need to (albeit with too little water). The year we used soakers, we used those cheap SIAMESE adapters to select each area which seemed to work well enough.

If we ever go back to soakers I'll use a real PVC manifold with zoned electric valves just like the misting system.

5/11/2006 10:20:25 AM

Santa Cruz, CA

Thanks for the help! We are putting two 100'soaker hoses in per plant. I guess we may need more towards the end of the season. -Kristine

5/11/2006 11:11:09 AM

Santa Cruz, CA

We have separate hoses to separate spickets per 100' of soaker hoses. The guy at the garden store said ganging won't work either. There is about 50' dedicated to the root zone around the planting zone. I have the hoses spiraling out from the initial planting area. The hose is about 1 1/2 feet away from each spiral. (About 3 or 4 X around the 6' mound) Does that sound good? I haven't buried the soaker hose past the mound so I could go around again if you think it is necessary. Thanks for the help.

5/11/2006 12:33:53 PM

Cameron,ontario Team Lunatic

Kristine

I use 125 ft for each hole in three pieces. I start out with just 50 ft & as the plants grow I add the additional lenths on. They are all usually on by the middle of July. My waterbarrels are on elevated platforms & I have one on each end of the plant & alternate them each day. Works great for me.

Phil

5/12/2006 8:04:04 AM