Ditching My Soaker Hoses....Going Back To Sprinklers!!!!!!!!

For a while I had an opossum or small raccoon coming in through the cat door and terrorizing out kitchen.

It laughed at the Hav-a-heart trap, and even managed somehow to get the bait out.

I'm just glad it heard me coming and left, because I was AFRAID of anything that could make that much noise.

Plus, I was climbing stairs from the basement, and the first thing it would have had access to would have been my face.

Although we're getting off topic here, I have to add that you were wise to avoid the possum. We had one that killed both of our mature geese by jumping on their backs at night and eating through to their vitals. It was a horrible death for our faithful chicken flock guardians. We did manage to catch it, but it took several nights of baiting that trap to do it.

Thanks, I felt like a sissy.

I was limping up the stairs trying to hold a bayonet in one hand, a club in the other, and a flashlight in my teeth. It went through my mind that I certainly LOOKED stupid, and probably WAS being stupid.

Fortunately it left before I could prove to myself and ER nurses just HOW stupid I was.

Back on topic ... I flushed out my backyard watering lines and set some sprayers on stakes where the beds were thirstiest. I just started this system last year and I'm still learning.

I have one 50' length of dripline (emitters every 12") and an old 50 foot soaker hose. And lots of 1/4" fittings and 10/32 thread mini-sprayers.

If I'm going to use both drippers and sprayers, I need one zone with only drippers, that I can run for an hour or two.

I have nine tiny beds, so Tee-tape would be overkill. Even driplines and soaker hoses will only "fit" if I lay them in a zig-zag or serpentine pattern.

We haven't had great luck with soaker hoses. The water supply to our garden is untreated and full of iron and other minerals, and it clogs soaker hoses fairly quickly. The T-tapes work better for us. They are supposed to be replaced every year but we don't always do that, even though you're supposed to. Especially if we've run the tape under mulch it seems to last more than a year. We cut it to size for the length of our rows; some of ours are short, like eight feet, and others are more like twenty or so. And for the tomatoes, since we grow them in tripods, a plant to each pole, we run the tape up one side of the row and back down the other so they get more even moisture.

Here's a plan of our garden, so you can see what I'm talking about:

RickCorey, the guy who advised me when setting up my drip system said that drip LINE should not be used in long lengths, that's it's better to use, say, five 3 ft. lengths running out of the main than to use one 15 ft. length. I forget what the reason was though.

Ladysoth,

You and he may be right, but I was told that my 50', 1/4" dripline was good for 50'. I would expect pressure drop to be the main reason not to run long lengths, and I don't think my emitters are particularly pressure-correcting (though they are 'turbulent flow'.)

If normal 1/4" lines are good for 40 GPH, that SHOULD support 80 emitters or 80- feet.(1/2 GPH per foot ). But maybe my "1/4" dripline" has many restrictions smaller than the normal ID of 1/4" tubing (0.160 - 0.170 inch ID).

Dripworks claims that their 1/2" (HALF inch) dripline is good for 190 feet to 550 feet, depending on the spacing of the emitters and the GPH of each emitter. But then, 1/2" mainline (0.600 ID) can handle 240 GPH beofre flow gets too turbulent and pressure drops too fast.
http://www.dripworks.com/category/half-inch-emitter-tubing

I don't know if there is any advantage to dripline over Tee tape: pros and people with large straight beds seem to lean toward Tee tape. I see it is cheaper, and dripline is much thicker. Tee tape has a range of thicknesses, but "15 mil" or 0.015" is the thickest Tee tape I've seen, and I think it is sold as thin as 6 or 4 mil.

Dripline is designed for 15-50 PSI, so I guess it it probably has wall thickness more like regular mainline wall thickness: 50-55 mil..

>> say, five 3 ft. lengths running out of the main

At that rate, with 12" emitter separation , three emitters = 1.5 GPH per branch, they aren't much more convenient than individual drippers.

But I'll give your suggestion more thought and maybe cut the 50' run into 2-5 pieces and run those off 1/4" Tees. But first I'll have to dedicate them to9 particular beds, because after cutting up the dripline, it will mostly be suitable only for the bed(s) that it "fits". Most of my beds are irregular shapes, and many are very small.

I think the only real convenience is that the emitters are already installed.

Drip irrigation is absolutely the way to go. Saves water, reduces disease on foliage (give those poor squash plants a break from mildew infestations this year) and doesn't get redirected like spray systems do as plants grow bigger and block water to their neighbors.

And a follow up on the note about using a tin can ring - if you check to make sure you haven't corralled any critters inside the ring, this is also a good way to keep the cutworms from slicing off your seedlings at the soil line. Bonus!

When you try spamming here you should know how to link!

Ha Ha nice shot Bernie

I recently purchased 100 ft of 1/2 in soaker hoses that also came with 25 ft of 1/2 in garden hose for the feedline. Does anybody know where to purchase parts to connect the 1/2 in garden hose to a conventional (3/4 in?) faucet? The kit came with one such connection (it came with multiple connections for attaching the soaker hose to the garden hose, but not the garden hose to the conventional water spout), however I need to cut the hose into four pieces and attach them to a four way diverter. I can't find anything at the Big Box stores to connect to a cut piece of 1/2 in garden hose that will allow me to accomplish this.

>> to connect to a cut piece of 1/2 in garden hose

Are you looking attach a standard hose thread fitting (male or female) to a regular old 1/2" garden hose that you cut in half? Those are just "hose repair fittings". My Home Depot has bins of them. The brass ones come with stainless steel hose clamps and are nice hardware. They also sell cheaper nylon/plastic things, where I worry about the screws stripping the plastic , but I guess they work for most people.

If you mean they have 3/4" and 5/8" but not 1/2", yeah, you have to shop around.
Sears says they have them for $2+:
http://www.sears.com/orbit-female-end-aluminum-1-2inch-garden-hose-repair/p-SPM6316966004P

I really wish I kn ew why "Nelson" charges $7.70 for the cheap nylon version!!

I think you need to install a sprinkler controller with sprinkler system. With the help of it, you can easily access it from anywhere. And you can also set the time in your sprinkler system.