Or am I just doing it wrong? I bought three maybe a month ago and laid them all out. Two are on a splitter off of the spigot, so they automatically run whenever I'm watering containers with the hose. The other one I have to drag the hose over to and hook up. At first I was really impressed -- I could run all three soakers at once and come inside put my feet up and sip iced tea instead of moving a trickling hose around every 10-15 minutes all night. But my camellia (planted this spring) has been looking wilted and has even started looking burned. I put the soaker on for an hour this weekend to no avail. But tonight I went back to the old method, and she perked right back up.
So do I need better quality soakers? Should I only run one at a time on full force? What's the trick?
Are soaker hoses overrated?
A soaker uses less water so would require longer watering. It's still our favorite way of watering.
Camilla's are very particular with all their requirements. I had 4 of them planted and a new house was built next to me, up way higher than my house for some reason and with no sod for months and months the dirt would wash over my camilla's. They all wilted and died soon after.
I know they require acidic soil and shade. Hopefully someone a pro at getting camilla's to live long enough to take root can shed some light on the subject. =)
Soakers hoses are best for turf and established trees and plants. And an hour's worth is not long enough to do any good. In the worst of the summer heat, you have to leave one going from 4-7 hours to keep from doing more harm than good. Superficial watering encourages shallow root growth.
For new plants, watering by hand or letting the water drip from a hose at the base of the plant for 8-12 hours is much better. And don't do the drip during the heat of the day. The water just evaporates. Start it about the time the sun goes down.
good to know! I would never have run one for that long. Looks like it's back to my old ways. What's that they say about if it's not broken ...?
I use drip irrigation from home depot its great I have allmost everything on a timer now (after two years of working on it) I have even ran drippers to most of my potted plants you can use different drippers for diferent plants set the timers for as long as you want etc etc etc I bought it a little at a time and started out without timers as they are the modst expensive part now i spend my time enjoying my plants and not hurring home after work to drag a hose around for another hour or two it has been the best thing for us here especially with our lovely texas summers.
Ted. Do you have any pictures with the drippers in your potted plants? Everything I have thought about doing looks too unsightly.
I can post one in a day or two but I have to agree they are unsightly but with my limited time and occasionally vacation it was the my only option and Ive finally gotten used to it the main line for the drippers can be hidden by mulch or by placing it against the inside of your landscape edging plus none of my plants have died or suffered from lack of water
Most of my potted plants are on the deck.
I have several on my deck (mostly succulents) I have a hose with a spray nozzle that permantly stays there it would be far too time consuming to run drippers to all of them plus it would be unsightly I have moved a great many of my potted plants to my flowerbeds ,mostly my wierd plants so I could more easily put drippers to them
this is my first year with a lot of plants on the deck. I'm still learning the best way to do things. I keep having to bring the hose up on the deck then take it down. up and down! *giggle I have to figure out a better easier way but I just haven't come up with it yet.
I'm preparing some new beds (from scratch), raised ones actually - and am thinking about trying to install some kind of drip irrigation system... I tried soaker hoses as well at our old house, without much luck (similar result as Markette). The hoses seemed to just leach out a TINY bit of water, VERY slowly...can see how that would probably work well for established trees, etc., but not very easy to cover a lot of ground!
Ted - Is there any kind of extra equipment, besides the plastic drip lines & timers, that you need to install this to a standard outdoor water spigot? An adapter of some kind? Also, do you lay your drippers on top of your mulch, or would you bury them (lightly, of course!) under the mulch (contact with the soil)?
I used soaker/sprinkler hoses for a while before getting a system installed. I was pleased with the results in my flower beds. You said you were hand watering at the same time, so the water my not have been getting to the ends of the soakers to water thoroughly because your pressure would vent through the hand held first. I had bought some at HD but they didn't hook end to end. The ones I liked best were from Lowe's they had soaker type pores, but also had the sprinkler holes that were alternated along the hose, and were end to end hookup, where the HD ones were single connect.
Soaker hoses tend to clog if the water has a high mineral content. I tried a few before discarding them. They were almost completely useless in a few months.
I used a drip irrigation system called an octobubbler for about 3 years before giving it up and throwing it away. Eight lines could be attached to each unit. The lines had small slices in them every few inches. Sounded great. But the truth of the matter is that the lines get clogged with minerals and sometimes with soil, you have to run them for such a long period of time (and if you have several stations, well, it's just almost impossible to get it all done), and plants just don't grow that way. What I mean by that is: You run the lines around the plant (or down a row if you're veggie gardening). But the plants' roots extend out to all sides and the water, when it does finally reach them, is just running in a line. Even if you circle the plant, the water only wets the soil for a couple of inches in either direction, at best. So I found that plants were suffering, even dying because only part of their roots were getting any moisture. When I would see a wilted or dead plant out in the garden, I would check and invariably it was suffering from lack of water. I put the sprinkler heads back in, and even though it gets some of the flower heads, the plants are thriving again. I will never go back to drip irrigation.