wrote in message ...
: 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.

http://www.access-irrigation.net
I have found the drippers very reliable have been dripping at 2 lt/hr.
now in their 3rd. season..
:
: 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
: