Soaker Hoses vs. Drip Irrigation

Hi All:

Getting some type of automated watering system installed is at the top of my to do list before the season starts. After planting, 90% of my time was spent watering. And with the drought we are having, I need a method that waters a lot more efficiently than using a hand held hose.

So that means I'm looking at either soaker hose or drip irrigation. Can someone explain what is the difference is and speak to their relative advantages and disadvantages?

This will be a large project, so I'd like to hear opinions on which method is more suitable for my particular situation.

Here is another thread that will give you a layout of the gardens

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/793247/

Some more views
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/681512/

Thanks
BB

I used soaker hoses for the first time this year, and they are fabulous. I followed the advice of some regular users of soaker hoses and when I connected the second hose, I first removed the reducer thing inside the end of the first hose. This meant I could have 200 ft of soaker hose working all along its length. I didn't mulch over it and it still worked very well. I used way less water than I had in previous years. I could not believe how much water it distributed in 1/2 hour. My plants were happy clams.

The only problem I can think of is if you were growing larger plants where you might want to really target where the water was going. I did have some empty bits in the garden that got watered anyway because of the hose. And if I had plants in pots, drip would be the way to go.

Can't beat the price, though, and it's so easy to install. Next year I will have four more.

Thanks!

I'm really leaning towards the soakers as they seem to be a little easier to implement.

I use Dg drip system I love it it took a year or two to set up because of cost and time but here in tx water is fairly limited now everything is on timers and its great soakers are ok but i like the fact that when its dry nothing grows except where the drippers are no weeds except right around the plants. and there are a variety of emitters available when I rotate crops I move the hosesfrom row to row.

We use a T-Tape system. The soaker hoses I've seen in this area are made from recycled tires and contain lead (that part is in very small print on the label).
THe folks at DripWorks are very knowledgeable and helpful

http://www.dripworksusa.com/

We bought a T-Tape starter kit for raised beds. I like it alot better than other drip systems/tubing that we have used in the past.
http://www.dripworksusa.com/ttape1.php

Ted:

What is DG? Not a product made by Daves, is it?

Mermaid:

Great link. Thanks.

lol Im sorry its called dig corp. not dg i guess that was a slip.

I love our drip system because of it's flexibilty. We installed a drip system all over the yard and I added fittings so I could use full size soaker in my veggie beds and mini soaker along a row of morning glories. Large plants have drippers and the spot where I keep my little potted plants has a mini sprinkler. And it all runs on half inch black poly pipe. The best part is that the timer waters whether we're home or not, so we don't have to worry about our veggies in the heat of summer.

If you have a sprinkler system it's easy to add valves for drip. If you don't have sprinklers however, soakers are much easier to attach to a spigot. I did find a small drip kit that attaches to a spigot for my mom to water the plants on her patio. She isn't very mechanically inclined but she put it all together herself in a weekend.

I like to think of our drip system as tinker toys for grownups (though I don't remember swearing at my tinker toys as a child :)

Can someone explain to me what exactly is the difference between a soaker and a drip?

With soaker the enitre hose is porous (it leaks water). There is no control over how much water comes out of any particlar part of the hose unless you poke extra holes in it. Soakers are usually laid on top of the ground over covered with mulch.

Drip systems have watertight hoses that you poke holes in to add drippers (little plastic buttons that drip water at a certain rate), or sprinklers, or other water dispensing devices. Drip hoses can be buried under lawns, walkways, etc, because they won't make a sinkhole or swamp where they are buried.

Here's a link with how-to stuff and photos of various parts that are used.
http://www.appletonridge.com/Drip_Irrigation.htm

Thanks

That's a good resource

BB
I am a small farmer in Arizona and we have used T-Tape from the start here. When I was still growing in my backyard I used both T-Tape and soaker hoses and found I liked the T-Tape much better. The soaker hoses seemed to put out a whole lot more water than the T-Tape and after a couple of seasons the soakers hoses seemed to plug up with our hard water here. The T-Tape was good for about 3 seasons if you use the 15mil thickness. Also with the soaker hose if your ground is not level most of the water comes out at the low end. With the T-Tape they contain pressure compensating emitters so the water comes out evenly even if your ground has a little slope. I now use the T-Tape that is 8mil thick and just use it for 1 season. I buy the fittings for the tape from Dripworks at the same link as one of the people above. However the cheapest place I have found to buy the tape is from Trickl-eez, a company out of Michigan. Their website is:

www.trickl-eez.com

At trickl-eez they do not have the small rolls of drip tape. The rolls they sell are 7500 feet long and run about $140 a roll which gets the cost down to less that .02 per foot. At the farm we use about 8 rolls a year and wind it up at the end of the season for recycling. Much cheaper to just use new each year than to try to reuse tape for us. Even with the 15mil drip tape we found the secound season had a lot of unwanted holes and was very time consuming to try and lay out again. The tape I like the best has 8" emitter spacing and I use the high flow. One of the great things for us is that the weeds only grow where the surface of the ground gets wet. After about 4 hours the tape will wet an even 1 foot wide in our sandy soil. This tape will wet about a foot wide on top of the ground and about 2-3 feet wide a few inches down (kind of a cone shape as the water sinks in). With the high flow drip tape and 8" spacing it will put out .67 gallons per minute per 100' of row. We put a small valve at the start of each row so I can shut off a row if needed(such as when drying out onions before harvest, or cutting back water before melon harvest).

Another point is at dripworks give them a call and tell them you are a small commercial grower and they will give you a commercial account with them. This will save you from 25-50% on items purchased from them. Normally you only see the retail prices on their website and need a password to get to the wholesale side.

When I plant with drip tape I must put the seeds right next to the tape so they all get wet on the first soaking so there is even germination. Some crops we plant double rows of, such as greenbeans and we use 2 driptapes, one next to each row of plants. Things like baby lettuce, carrots and other greens were we plant in a solid bed 2feet wide, I use 3 tapes to wet about 3feet wide so all stays watered well. I also have used the tape below and on top of the ground. I prefer for the tape to be burried about 1"-2". On top of the gound even with wire hold downs the tape seemed to wander when not in use on a warm day.

Another item with drip tape is you will need a pressure reducer. The tape can only take about 12 pounds of pressure. These are available in various types from dripworks and they work great. In the dripworks catalog they recommend using a filter for the water going into your drip system but after the first couple of years when I made a change to the system I forgot to put the filter back in. We have not had any problems without a filter. Our water comes from our well through a pressure tank right into the lines and we have had no problems with clogging the tape.

Good luck in your growing.

Thanks Farmerguy:

This was a very informative post. Is the difference in the mil just one of weight and thickness?

BB

Yes, weight and thickness both. It also effects the amount of footage on a roll you receive for the price. The 15 mil rolls only have 4100' of tape. The 8 mil rolls have 7500', the 6 mil roll has 10,000'. I tried the 6 mil once and had problems. Seemed like it was constantly getting holes in it. Speaking of holes, you will want to have some couplings for the drip tape on hand as it does get holes from time to time and you can use the couplings year after year with any of the thicknesses.

OK.

Thanks to the links that you all have provided, I think I have a good sense of how to plan and install a system. I do have a couple of questions:

How do you branch the main line so that it goes to various zones? I have about 6 zones in my gardens.
Can the watering of each zone be staggered or does it need to all be done at the same time?

Thanks
BB

The controllers I've seen will only water the different zones one at a time, never all at once. Just make sure you buy a controller that has capability for 6 different zones, I think the one I have can only handle 4 zones. And the better controllers will let you water different zones for different lengths of time, or skip a zone, so if you have some areas with thirstier plants than others, or areas that get more sun and dry out quicker, you can adjust.

The way to do different zones is somewhere up near your water source, you have to put in different actuator valves for each zone, and those get connected up to the controller so that it has the ability to open and close each valve, then coming out of each valve you send tubing/pipe over to the area of the garden which you want managed from that valve. Exactly how the connection from the valve to the controller is done will probably vary depending on the valves and controller that you buy. I've never installed one of these, but I've inherited systems from previous owners so I know the general theory of how they work but not the specific installation details.

I've been using soaker hoses in areas with general planting, like the lettuce patch, where it is not practical to run a "line" to each plant. In the part of the garden with specific plants, like tomatoes, I run drip to each plant. That way the water goes to where I want it. I'm looking now at switching the soaker hose to drip tape, for like the beans and cukes and just using the soaker hose in the greens patch.