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Carrollton, Ga.

Hello,
Could someone who uses soaker hoses please tell me the best way to lay them out under a plant that is going to be grown in the christmas tree shape. My hose is 100 feet long. I have been pinching the hose off with a c-clamp while the plant is small so I will not be wasting water.

Thanks,
Doug

8/11/2002 9:04:14 PM

Montoursville, PA

One Dude You have a key word "UNDER". I have been working off this site with others to locate data and experience. The hard part is the latter. In my life before pumpkins some twenty years ago I had jock strap engineering on a leaky hose underground system. That required every three feet in sandy loam to maintain aproximately what we look for today. Consistantly damp and never puddled or soaking wet. I am asking myself the same question you have ask. I am looking at the whole bed and thinking the hose or supply line should be below tiller debth about every three feet coming off a header using about a 50ft. straight line to end of patch. Once you have that desired damp patch you will learn quickly what the on/off timing needs to be. With any underground system one spot will show you wet. This becomes the turn off point. At that point you know you have damp down to the depth of the hose and beyond. Surface evaportion is next to zero and your only chemical loss will be to leaf feeding. Using quality liquid fertilizers the lines will not plug. Your underground plastics or vinyls will last much longer with out UV from the sun burning them out. This is rule of thumb and jock strap engineering. You may need to consider a hose line supply pressure and flow regulater to prevent flooding. Believe I remember that mine was 2gpm flow at 10psi. I am in sandy loam with about 10% organic content in the top eight.

9/28/2002 7:55:58 AM