JB wrote:
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 00:38:52 +0100, Stan The Man
wrote:

For all that the gardening media love to recommend porous hose for
efficient, water-wise irrigation, it is far less successful in these
terms than a drip irrigation system since a) you can't use it to target
individual plants (it emits water along its full length - including on
empty soil); b) it isn't as flexible/bendy as small-bore micro tubing
so is difficult to double back on itself, eg to water two rows of veg;
c) it is bigger than micro tubing so is harder to hide on hard
landscaping, eg if watering patio containers.

Its advantages over dripper systems are that it is virtually
plug-and-play (no piping network to assemble) and that it can be buried
in soil to almost eliminate evaporation (so can micro tubing but the
dripper arteries have to break through the surface).

I've just installed one of those dripper systems across pots and
hanging baskets around the patio and I have to say that I'm quite
unimpressed. Not all the drippers drip at the same rate even though
they're all supposed to be fixed at 4 l/h so every so often halfway
along the row I find one that is giving nothing while elsewhere
another will be flooding. Unfortunately with the foliage in the way I
spend more time checking that its working correctly and correcting
where it has underwatered than if I just watered by hand in the first
place.

I suspect they would be a godsend in the greenhouse over a holiday but
in general use I've found it to be too tempermental to be practical.

They require much more maintenance and effort than one (hopefully)
initially imagines. In addition the timers that come with them are
exorbitantly expensive.

We have tried/used two or three different brands and no one brand
stands out as particularly good.

We had several set up at one time but none was particularly effective.
We now have just one watering the tomatoes in growbags in the green
house. It's a very simple system watering about ten growbags with three
plants in each, thus if one nozzle stops watering it isn't a
disaster. I've replaced the timer with a home made one using a plug
in timer and a washing machine valve, much cheaper and lasts more
than a season.

--
Chris Green