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Chris J Dixon 10-02-2021 02:12 PM

Using soaker hose
 
I have, with some success, been using a porous hose to water some
of my flower beds, as they are rather dry because of clay soil, a
neighbour's ivy hedge and trees in both gardens.

The side border is about 1 m x 8 m, leading to an area of about
20 sq m across the bottom of the garden.

I currently feed from the house, via a pressure reducer and
timer, to both ends of what is essentially a loop, down the side
border, leading to meanders to cover the most distant area.
Naturally, the pressure, and hence flow, drops off at the end of
the run.

As some of the hose is now a little _too_ leaky and fragile if
jointed, I am looking to replace it this spring, before
everything bursts into growth.

Something tells me that there ought to be a simple way to work
out how to get best coverage (some sort of resistor
calculation?). I guess a separate feed hose with reduced flow
resistance, supplying sub-sections, might be the way, but I fear
the maths might point to many short stubs, which means more
joints and leak opportunities.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

newshound 10-02-2021 03:13 PM

Using soaker hose
 
On 10/02/2021 13:12, Chris J Dixon wrote:
I have, with some success, been using a porous hose to water some
of my flower beds, as they are rather dry because of clay soil, a
neighbour's ivy hedge and trees in both gardens.

The side border is about 1 m x 8 m, leading to an area of about
20 sq m across the bottom of the garden.

I currently feed from the house, via a pressure reducer and
timer, to both ends of what is essentially a loop, down the side
border, leading to meanders to cover the most distant area.
Naturally, the pressure, and hence flow, drops off at the end of
the run.

As some of the hose is now a little _too_ leaky and fragile if
jointed, I am looking to replace it this spring, before
everything bursts into growth.

Something tells me that there ought to be a simple way to work
out how to get best coverage (some sort of resistor
calculation?). I guess a separate feed hose with reduced flow
resistance, supplying sub-sections, might be the way, but I fear
the maths might point to many short stubs, which means more
joints and leak opportunities.

Chris

One complication in trying to calculate it formally is that the flow
rate, and hence velocity decreases the further you get down the line
because of the deliberate leakage. And that will affect the pipe
friction (or pressure loss). You could investigate this with a simple
pressure gauge. With it running, if the pressure at the far end is
similar to that at the start, then it is not much of an issue (and vice
versa). Another factor is that the permeability of different sections of
pipe may vary from manufacturing variations.

If you identify "dry spots" either because of this factor or because you
are at the end of the run, you could increase the porosity of these bits
by applying pointy objects. You might need a bit of trial and error to
find the right hole size. (I once manufactured a "sprinkler" system
based on a flat spiral of hosepipe, with regular drillings of around
1/16 inch made using a cordless drill).

Peter Burke 10-02-2021 03:14 PM

Using soaker hose
 
Chris J Dixon wrote in
:

I have, with some success, been using a porous hose to water some
of my flower beds, as they are rather dry because of clay soil, a
neighbour's ivy hedge and trees in both gardens.

The side border is about 1 m x 8 m, leading to an area of about
20 sq m across the bottom of the garden.

I currently feed from the house, via a pressure reducer and
timer, to both ends of what is essentially a loop, down the side
border, leading to meanders to cover the most distant area.
Naturally, the pressure, and hence flow, drops off at the end of
the run.


I have treated 2 similar situations differently:

One with soaker hose running at (decent) full mains pressure suffering the
same problems I split one 35 odd metre length into a 20 and 15 by feeding
the centre point using a hose via a T which solved the balance problem.

The other I used a 12 or 15mm pressure reduced irrigation system backbone
with drip and spray irrigator spikes off short flexible stubs. V effective
as watering and flow could be targeted to areas that needed it most and I
felt this was the neater and possibly longer lasting solution.

I can look up sources if it would be useful.

Chris J Dixon 10-02-2021 03:51 PM

Using soaker hose
 
Peter Burke wrote:

The other I used a 12 or 15mm pressure reduced irrigation system backbone
with drip and spray irrigator spikes off short flexible stubs. V effective
as watering and flow could be targeted to areas that needed it most and I
felt this was the neater and possibly longer lasting solution.

I can look up sources if it would be useful.


I'm reasonably familiar, thanks, I have such a system for my pots
and hanging baskets, which also extends to a few plants in
another border which need the water.

Certainly worth consideration, but the general advice seems to be
that soakers are less wasteful than sprays. (Until they split and
you have a paddling pool.)

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

S 10-02-2021 11:53 PM

Using soaker hose
 
On 10/02/2021 13:12, Chris J Dixon wrote:
I have, with some success, been using a porous hose to water some
of my flower beds, as they are rather dry because of clay soil, a
neighbour's ivy hedge and trees in both gardens.

The side border is about 1 m x 8 m, leading to an area of about
20 sq m across the bottom of the garden.

I currently feed from the house, via a pressure reducer and
timer, to both ends of what is essentially a loop, down the side
border, leading to meanders to cover the most distant area.
Naturally, the pressure, and hence flow, drops off at the end of
the run.

As some of the hose is now a little _too_ leaky and fragile if
jointed, I am looking to replace it this spring, before
everything bursts into growth.

Something tells me that there ought to be a simple way to work
out how to get best coverage (some sort of resistor
calculation?). I guess a separate feed hose with reduced flow
resistance, supplying sub-sections, might be the way, but I fear
the maths might point to many short stubs, which means more
joints and leak opportunities.

Chris


I have designed several soaker hose systems keeping an eye on pressure
drop and volumetric flow rates.

I have two currently in use.

One is for a greenhouse fed by 25 mm MDPE water pipe.

This is used for strawberry pots and then tomatoes during the course of
the year.

There is a stop valve followed by a watering timer that allows you to
set the frequency of the watering (4 times daily, twice daily, once
daily, every other day etc) and the duration of the watering ( 1 min, 5
mins, 10 mins, 30 mins and hour). They are cheap at arounds 15 quid.

Then there is a venturi based dosing device.

https://mazzei.net/products/venturi-injectors/

I can connect a fertiliser bottle via a stop tap for the weekly feeds to
the strawbs or toms.

This then feeds an equal Tee.

There is a hose pipe that runs round the perimeeter of the greenhouse
and both ends are connected to the one equal Tee piece.

Think of this as a water version of an electrical ring main.

I have put in a Tee piece for each pot on that watering ring main,
keeping the ring main loop as it is.

I then connect a short length of hose pipe, followed by a stop valve and
another short length of hosepipe right down to the pot from that Tee
piece on the ring main.

The stop valve is to turn off water to the one pot once the plant has
finished fruiting or has died or is not needed.

You could conceivably use the stop valve as a crude "balancing" valve
not unlike the lockshield valves on radiators.

The end of this hosepipe then feeds another Tee piece. I then cut a
length of soaker hose to just fit the inside of the pot at soil level
and connect both ends of the soaker house to the one Tee piece at the
end of the hosepipe.

Thus, by custom fitting a circular soaker hose pipe round the plant, you
"focus" the water onto that plant and as the active length of teh soaker
hose is less, you get better pressure distribution and more even flow
rates around the pots.

This has the capacity to water 30 pots with the greenhouse.

Its getting late now so tomorrow I will describe the system I use for my
outdoor veg patch.....

Prod me if I forget!



Chris J Dixon 19-02-2021 10:37 AM

Using soaker hose
 
S wrote:

Its getting late now so tomorrow I will describe the system I use for my
outdoor veg patch.....

Prod me if I forget!


I'd be interested to read it.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK
@ChrisJDixon1

Plant amazing Acers.

S 24-02-2021 09:30 AM

Using soaker hose
 
On 19/02/2021 09:37, Chris J Dixon wrot:
S wrote:

Its getting late now so tomorrow I will describe the system I use for my
outdoor veg patch.....

Prod me if I forget!


I'd be interested to read it.

Chris



OK, I have a veg patch. with a 25mm MDPE blue pipe water supply to it.

This is then fed into a 5m long 22mmm copper tube that runs along one
side of the veg patch.

At approx 30 cm intervals, there is a reducing Tee like this:

https://cdn.ecommercedns.uk/files/4/...33148/sc31.jpg

so I have a 4m long "manifold" with 14 of these and the last tee is one
of these

https://www.bes.co.uk/media/catalog/...n_6862_P_1.jpg

then there is a 25cm long 15mm pipe stub at the end with a 15 mm elbow
and a 2nd pipe stub.

Immediately after each Tee there is a washing machine valve like these:

https://www.tbsdirect.co.uk/images/ocw/pb04022l-xxl.jpg wiith a short 5
cm long 15mm pipe between the Tee and valve.

Then at this point, I fit either one of these depending on what I am
growing:

https://www.garden4less.co.uk/prodim...elock/2010.jpg for something
that needs irregular watering or is influenced by the weather conditions

or

for regular watering, one of these:

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1wCc3g...stem-21025.jpg

The beauty of this is that rather than have the veg patch watered all in
one go, I can stagger the watering across the patch to avoid low water
pressure problems

So carrots at 6.00 am daily, radishes at 7.00 am, spring onions at 8.00
am etc

Then after each count down timer or electronic timer, I fit one of these:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/i/14177...-1/s-l1000.jpg

then a hose pipe connector:

https://www.buycentral.com.au/wp-con...08244809-5.JPG

then a soaker hopse length is attached to this, and a stop end put on
the other end of the soaker hose.

So its effectively a zoned watering system designed to water veg that
are grown in rows like carrots and other root veg.

I do have some fruit bushes, and this is watered uysing the topology I
described for the greenhouse.

I'll try and put some images up on a free image hosting website and post
them later....


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