Soaker Hoses

I recently read somewhere that hoses are tagged, some are ok for drinking water for human consumption and some are not. I'm trying to set up soaker hoses for veggie garden and would like them to be non toxic since I am growing organic veggies. Anyone know a source for them?

Have you looked at the Drip Works site? They have a lot of good information on their site, and helpful staff. We like T-Tape for the raised beds.
http://www.dripworksusa.com/design.php

The standard soaker hoses made from recycled tires have lead in them. At least the ones at Home Depot, Lowes etc do.

Thank you for posting this, I didn't even think about my soaker hoses leaching chemicals.

We didn't think about that either until we were reading the fine print on the package and saw the warning about the hoses containing lead. I don't know if that is standard labeling or just for the California market.

I checked my soaker hose label after reading this, as I had just bought a couple. It didn't have any warnings on it. The manufacturer was Swan, and I bought it at Lowe's here in NY. I went to look at the Consumer Reports thing, and it didn't cover very many brands. I think it was there that I read that flushing out the hose before running it was very helpful. The label on mine said not to let it sit in the sun, which makes sense in terms of leaching also. This year I will be sure to cover them with mulch. I didn't last year, just used them in the early am.

I also saw this article, which touches upon how readily plants take up lead in the soil:

http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG2543.html

I'm not sure what to think now. Using soaker hoses has massively simplified my watering.

This message was edited Apr 28, 2008 2:33 PM

Hmmmm..... I've also been using soaker hoses. They have simplified my life tremendously. Am I poisoning myself?

Hmmm....it appears that most garden hoses may have some lead in them.
Here is some further info on the CA Prop 65 labeling requirement, which is why we see the warning on the hoses here:
http://www.swanhose.com/qa.shtml

Here is a discussion from GW on lead in garden hoses:
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/organic/msg061240517127.html

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-lead-free-garden-hose.htm

Well nanadee, now you have me researching the whole lead in the garden thing, as in, what can we as gardeners do about it? Between the heavy metal contaminated industrial wastes that have routinely been sold as "fertilizer", air and water pollution, we probably all have a higher degree of lead in our soils than we would like.
The mushrooms and microbial innoculants are winning out as possible bioremediation tactics for the home garden. Stay tuned.

Shoot!!! I thought I was being all cool setting up my veggie garden with a soaker hose. Not to mention the countless times I've filled my kid's pool up with a regular hose and the many times I've caught him stealing a drink from it....

Does anyone know whether studies have been done to show the levels of lead in the actual water from these hoses? The article only gave the concentration of lead in the hoses themselves. I wonder how much actually leaches into the water.

How can it possibly be legal to sell a lead containing product that has so many uses that would result in contact with foods, skin, etc.? Why should we have to look around for special non-lead garden hoses? This is really making me cranky.

blackbird, I drank from garden hoses and we filled our pool with them as I was growing up. I haven't keeled over from it yet, but I am trying to lessen the toxic burden in my environment where I can. We have used soaker hoses in the ornamental landscaping in the past. Over the years we've been swapping them out for other types of drip irrigation.

If you watch the Bill Moyers report, Trade Secrets, you'll see that the US has had a policy of releasing a product or chemical to the general public first, and testing later, usually after someone has sued over an injury. That is why it is currenlty legal to sell a contaiminated product.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/841325/

Mermaid, yeah, I've done enough reading on other issues to convince me that for new chemicals, they rely too heavily on postlicensure monitoring and not enough on pre-market testing.

But lead - hey, we KNOW the stuff is bad. I can deal with it in my Christmas tree lights, but in my water sources? That's shameful.

I did my share of sucking from the hose when I was young and so far I am very healthy, so I agree it's good to try to keep a larger perspective about it. We do what we can...

I'm looking into what we as gardeners can do to eliminate or "deactivate" the lead etc in our soils. Lead arsenic was a commonly used insecticide in many parts of the world through the 1930's so there is a lot of it in the soil already. This area was covered in commercial fruit orchards through the 1980's.

A preliminary look at the info available on the web shows that compost and microbial activity usually tends to work in our favour in diluting the contaminants, but in some cases makes the metals more readily absorbed by the plant. I need to check out a few more things before I post the links.

In the meantime, you may be interested in what mushrooms can do to eliminate dioxins in the soil:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/841211/